The fault of genes is that the heart is too large

2002/03/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Genetika
• Osasuna

Left ventricular hypertrophy is characterized by its exceptional cardiac size. As a consequence of this pathology, there is a high risk of having a heart attack and there are also physical factors that aggravate it. These include high blood pressure and sports, for example, an estimated one-third of sudden deaths of young athletes are due to this pathology.

Thanks to studies with animals suffering from this hypertrophy, the responsibility of the PPAR gene has been confirmed. This gene controls the breakdown of fatty acids that the body uses as fuel. Those who have a special variant of this gene have defects in this function. This is why fatty acids accumulate in the heart. Then the heart burns glucose and as fuel is worse than fatty acid, the heart is strengthened. In the end, researchers believe that heart cells die.

This variant associated with left ventricular hypertrophy is more common than expected, reaching 20% of the population. It is expected that thanks to the aforementioned studies a short-term cure can be found.