When, where and what changes occur in cells in the heart during heart failure?

Spatially resolved cellular and molecular drivers of cardiac remodelling in healthy and failing human hearts  (joint funding with DZHK)

Heart failure affects millions of people around the world. During heart failure, the heart is unable to pump strongly enough to meet the day-to-day demands of the body. It can also lead to electrical faults in the heart. Now, researchers in London and Berlin are joining forces to try to build a more precise understanding of what happens to cells during heart failure. A healthy heart is made of billions of cells, including muscle cells, which function and contract in perfect synchrony. But we don’t yet know the precise types and combinations of cells that make up different parts of the heart. We know that physical symptoms of heart failure come about due to changes in the way these cells work together, and now Dr Noseda and her colleagues in Berlin are investigating how the individual cells change. Working together, these British and German teams will use cutting-edge research technologies to analyse thousands of heart cells at once. They hope to reveal the exact types of cells that make-up different parts of the heart, and when, where and what changes take place in each type of cell during heart failure. This will help them identify potential targets to develop much-needed medicines to try to prevent or reverse heart damage.