Adding extra copies of a gene directly into their hearts could prevent a condition responsible for thousands of hospital admissions each year, they say. Previous studies in animals and human heart muscle cells have shown that increasing the levels of the gene improved the function of hearts which have already failed. Weakened In congestive heart failure, the heart muscle is weakened and cannot pump effectively, allowing fluids to back up in the circulatory system and sometimes into the lungs.
Diastolic dysfunction can proceed to congestive heart failure.
These results suggest possible avenues for treating this very significant problem that results from ageing itself, rather than from a specific disease. Deaths from coronary heart disease have fallen in the US in recent years, but heart failures have more than doubled between 1979 and 1995. The copies of the gene in the Massachussets study were inserted directly into the rats hearts using a catheter. In humans a vector, such as a virus, could be used to carry the gene. But the British Heart Foundation said the results of the study were a long way from a successful treatment in humans.