Macrophage MMP-9 Accelerates Cardiac Aging

Is macrophage MMP-9 a prime upstream regulator of cardiac aging? Yes, according to new research by Toba et al, explored in our latest podcast. Editor in Chief Irving H. Zucker (University of Nebraska Medical Center) interviews lead author and Deputy Editor Merry Lindsey (University of Mississippi Medical Center) and content expert Richard Gumina (Vanderbilt University) about the work by Lindsey and colleagues, which expands our knowledge of macrophage MMP-9 overexpression and its amplification of the myocyte hypertrophic response to aging. Did Lindsey and co-authors find in their experimental model that diastolic cardiac physiology was impaired before systolic cardiac physiology? MMP-9 appears to be a driver of inflammation, rather than a consequence of inflammation. Does MMP-9 in the aged heart also play a pro-fibrogenic role? Listen and learn more.

 

Hiroe Toba, Presley L. Cannon, Andriy Yabluchanskiy, Rugmani Padmanabhan Iyer, Jeanine D’Armiento, Merry L. Lindsey Transgenic overexpression of macrophage matrix metalloproteinase-9 exacerbates age-related cardiac hypertrophy, vessel rarefaction, inflammation, and fibrosis Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol, published March 1, 2017. DOI:10.1152/ajpheart.00633.2016