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Maywood, Ill. - May 19, 2021 - A team of scientists from Loyola University Chicago s Stritch School of Medicine have discovered a critical component for renewing the heart s molecular motor, which breaks down in heart failure.
Approximately 6.2 million Americans have heart failure, an often fatal condition characterized by the heart s inability to pump enough blood and oxygen throughout the body. This discovery could represent a novel approach to repair the heart.
Their findings, published in the May 19 issue of
Nature Communications, show how a protein called BAG3 helps replace worn-out components of the cardiac sarcomere. The sarcomere is a microscopic structure inside every heart muscle cell that causes it to contract. All the cells then work together to make the heart pump blood around the body.