Is PECAM a candidate gene for cardiomyopathy?

PECAM as a novel regulator of cardiac function

Cardiomyopathies are diseases of the heart muscle that can either be inherited through a faulty gene or acquired later in life. Cardiomyopathies can be life-threatening because the heart is weakened and unable to pump blood to meet the demands of the body. The only truly effective treatment for severe cardiomyopathy is a heart transplant, so new therapies are urgently needed. The heart is made up of different kinds of cells, including endothelial cells lining the blood vessels that supply the heart muscle cells with oxygen. Constant communication between these different heart cells is crucial. Dr Ellie Tzima and her team discovered that a gene called PECAM, which is active in endothelial cells but not heart muscle cells, aids communication between the two cell types. They have also found that mice lacking PECAM develop cardiomyopathy. In this project, her team will take this discovery forward to broaden our understanding of how different cell types in the heart communicate and how disrupted communication can lead to cardiomyopathy. This work will allow us to build a more complete picture of how the human heart works and shed light on whether improving cell-cell communication could be a new way to treat cardiomyopathy.