Gene Therapy of Cardiac Hypertrophy

Cardiac hypertrophy can be caused by obstruction of the aortic valve or by hereditary diseases of the heart muscle. With disease progression, cardiac hypertrophy results frequently in heart failure that may persist even after treatment of underlying causes. In both hereditary forms and acquired forms of cardiac hypertrophy, treatment options are limited. Therefore, we want to test a novel therapeutic approach in a pig model of acquired cardiac hypertrophy using inhibition of the transcription factor NFAT, that has been shown to control the hypertrophic gene programme in aortic stenosis but also hereditary forms of cardiac hypertrophy.