In an effort to reveal the molecular mechanism of cardiac aging, Tetsuo Shioi, from Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine (Japan), and colleagues suppressed a variant of the P13K (phosphoinositide 3-kinase) gene, which regulates the lifespan of cells and contributes to tissue aging, in a group of elderly mice. By doing so, mice with this suppressed gene exhibited improved cardiac function, less fibrosis (which makes the heart inflexible) and fewer biological markers of aging. Stating that: “Suppression of phosphoinositide 3-kinase prevented many age-associated changes in the heart and preserved cardiac function of aged mice.” the researchers are hopeful that this evidence may promote innovative approaches to delay or prevent heart failure in humans.
Aging Heart Prevented in Elderly Mice
Yasutaka Inuzuka, Junji Okuda, Tsuneaki Kawashima, Takao Kato, Shinichiro Niizuma, Yodo Tamaki, Yoshitaka Iwanaga, Yuki Yoshida, Rie Kosugi, Kayo Watanabe-Maeda, Yoji Machida, Shingo Tsuji, Hiroyuki Aburatani, Tohru Izumi, Toru Kita, and Tetsuo Shioi. “Suppression of Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase Prevents Cardiac Aging in Mice.” Circulation, Oct 2009; doi:10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.109.871137.
