Enlarged hearts are found often, but not exclusively, in those who are obese, have diabetes or high blood pressure. People with none of these underlying problems can be affected, as can elite athletes.  For example, a post-mortem diagnosed the problem in Cameroon football midfielder Marc-Vivien Foe, who died in 2003 after collapsing during an international match in France. Elite runner Olympic hopeful Ryan Shay died of complications involving an enlarged heart - the very condition that made him a great runner.

An international  research team headed up by Imperial College, UK say they have for the first time linked enlarged hearts with a gene, osteoglycin (Ogn).

Work carried out on rodents and some 30 humans indicated that Ogn - which has never before been linked with heart function - regulated the growth of the heart’s main pumping chamber, its left ventricle.  When this gene behaves abnormally the heart can become enlarged, putting the person at an increased risk of common heart diseases and heart attacks.

For further information, click on:

http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/newssummary/news_29-4-2008-13-31-10

Elaine Warburton  www.geneticsandhealth.com

Cardiomyocytes 

Stem cells have been used to create heart cells under lab conditions by researchers from the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine in Toronto.

By supplying the right growth factors at the right time, they encouraged the cells to grow into immature versions of three different types of cardiac cell.

The three cell types they created - cardiomyocytes, endothelial cells and vascular smooth muscle cells - are each important constituents of heart muscle.

Lead reseracher Dr Gordon Keller says

“The immediate impact of this is significant as we now have an unlimited supply of these cells to study how they develop, how they function and how they respond to different drugs.   In the future, these cells may also be very effective in developing new strategies for repairing damaged hearts, following a heart attack.”

To see these heart cells in action, click on the following link to a BBC video

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7361250.stm

Elaine Warburton   www.geneticsandhealth.com