Center for Heart Failure Research

Director: Louis J. Dell'Italia, MD and Ahsan Husain, PhD

Established: 2003

Mission and Demographics

The mission of the Center is to identify common and unique pathogenic mechanisms for chronic heart failure and to employ novel therapeutic strategies in patients in order to design targeted interventions to reduce the morbidity and mortality due to heart failure. It is supported by Specialized Clinical Center of Research (SCCOR) in Cardiac Dysfunction and Disease funding ($17.6 million; Dell’Italia, PI).

Center Research

The SCCOR supports three research projects designed to unravel mechanisms of LV remodeling in three disparate forms of heart disease – volume overload of MR, primary aldosteronism, and diabetic cardiomyopathy – that are resistant to standard medical therapy.  Project 1 (Volume Overload of Mitral Regurgitation) focuses on the role of sympathetic nervous system- and mast cell-mediated MMP activation and ECM degradation in progressive adverse LV remodeling and failure in patients with MR and dog models of this disease. Project 2 (Aldosterone-Induced Myocardial Fibrosis) studies the role of dietary salt status, inflammation, and mast cells in aldosterone-induced myocardial fibrosis and LV remodeling in patients and/or in genetic models of mast cell deficiency. Project 3 (Impact of Diabetes on LV Remodeling) determines whether AT₁ receptor blockade and xanthine oxdidase inhibition (allopurinol) will attenuate LV remodeling and dysfunction in the area opposite the infarct in diabetic patients. This project also looks at the impact of diabetes and insulin resistance on the time course of LV hypertrophy, function, and myocyte apoptosis in rats following a hemodynamic stress that duplicates the type of geometric remodeling in the area remote to the myocardial infarction in humans. These projects are supported by four Cores: the Administrative Core, the Bioanalytical Core, the Biostatistics Core, and the Imaging Core.

For additional information:

Director: Louis J. Dell'Italia, MD

Email: loudell@uab.edu

Phone: 205-934-3969

Administrator: Pia Todora

Email: pia@uab.edu

Phone: 205-934-3969

Approved by: Pia Todara, Center Administrator

Date: April 7, 2008

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