Grant: Project Grant

In Canada, approximately 1.6 million people suffer from cardiovascular diseases, and someone dies from these diseases every 7 minutes. The heart is made of different cell types that work together to generate a heart beat. These cells share a common mechanism to handle cellular stress in response to unfavorable conditions, but the outcome of the stress coping strategy depends on the type of heart cell. A condition called cardiac fibrosis results from malfunction of the cell stress coping response, which eventually results in heart failure. We found that long-term stress coping response in cardiomyocytes, (the cells responsible for contraction and relaxation of the heart) and in cardiac fibroblasts (the cells responsible for repairing damage to heart tissue) is instrumental to development of cardiac fibrosis. On the other hand, we found that a drug called TUDCA is effective in preventing cardiac fibrosis in animal models. The proposed research aims to understand how the malfunction in cardiomyocyte and cardiac fibroblasts stress coping response mechanism promotes cardiac fibrosis, and how TUDCA prevents cardiac fibrosis. We will apply the new knowledge generated to guide therapeutic interventions that can prevent or treat the development of heart disease in humans.