Heart attacks are a systemic disease

In a heart attack also react liver, spleen and other organs
Heart attacks are a life-threatening event, but in no case an isolated consideration of the heart problems should take place, so the result of a recent study by scientists of the MedUni Vienna. The acute myocardial infarction is a "systemic" disease, which has consequences for the entire organism.

So far, the explanation of the causes and consequences of myocardial infarction has focused heavily on heart damage and impaired cardiac function. But this consideration could be far too short. The new study results of the research team headed by Hendrik Jan Ankersmit and Michael Mildner at the Clinical Department of Thoracic Surgery at the University Clinics for Surgery and Dermatology of the MedUni Vienna show that a reaction also takes place in other organs such as the liver and spleen. The researchers published their study in the journal "Oncotarget".

In a heart attack many organ systems are involved, so the infarction should be considered as a systemic disease. (Image: psdesign1 / fotolia.com)

Monocausal approaches are not appropriate
So far, according to the scientists, "mostly with monocausal approaches, without holistic view trying to understand molecular and cellular processes after a heart attack (triggered by a circulatory disorder)." In addition, was very little about the effects on the surrounding the infarct center tissue and other organs have been known. The study, which has now been published, has shown in a large animal model relevant to humans that thousands of genes are involved in a heart attack.

Nearly 9,000 genes involved in a heart attack
"The heart attack changed the expression of nearly 9,000 genes in the heart, but also of 900 in the liver and around 350 in the spleen tissue within 24 hours after infarction," the scientists report. In addition, the transcription factor Klf4 (a protein that is important for the activation of many other genes) was attributed here a significant role, the researchers continue. The findings from the large animal model could also be confirmed by histological studies on human autopsy material, according to the scientists. The study was conducted by PhD student Matthias Zimmermann under the direction of Hendrik Jan Ankersmit and Michael Mildner.

Involved numerous organ systems
According to the researchers, the central finding of the current study is that myocardial ischemia, ie myocardial infarction, does not end in the injured myocardium. Indeed, the spectrum of organs involved is much larger and there are many indications that many organ systems are involved in coordinating the response of the organism to the infarction. "In doing so, we have demonstrated that the tunnel vision, which focuses solely on the heart, must be reconsidered in the event of a heart attack," says Zimmermann. The myocardial infarction is not isolated, but the entire organism reacts with. For the first time, the current study describes how a myocardial infarction looks in its entirety, which contributes enormously to the system biological understanding of the symptoms, adds Hendrik Jan Ankersmit.

Although the new findings do not call into question the current acute therapy for a heart attack, they open the discussion "whether a future therapy should not be considered systemically and should begin in several places in the organism," the scientists conclude. (Fp)