老心脏：衰老的心肌与细胞自噬

报道： 美国洛杉矶Cedars-Sinai医学中心Roberta A. Gottlieb等人总结了心肌细胞自噬随着年龄变化而产生的改变，这一自噬过程可以作为治疗多种衰老相关心脏问题的潜在靶点。

摘要：作为一种细胞水平持家过程，自噬在维持细胞组织的稳态中起到关键作用，尤其是在心肌细胞等长寿命的细胞中。自噬活性随着年龄的增长而衰退，这也许能够解释多种与衰老相关的心功能障碍现象。在本综述中，我们总结了目前已知的心脏中细胞自噬与衰老相关的变化。目前根据人类心脏的研究表明，在衰老的人类心脏中细胞自噬性反应依然完好。对于蛋白凝结以及恶化线粒体自噬性清除能力的衰减可以导致多种后果，其包括心律失常风险的增加，心脏收缩能力的降低，贫血耐受的降低，以及炎症的加重。进而，自噬能够成为一种潜在并重要的治疗靶点，有希望缓解衰老带来的多种心脏相关问题。本综述是特别刊《CV Aging》的一章。

关键词：衰老，自噬，心肌，人体研究，炎症

This old heart: Cardiac aging and autophagy

文章来源：Journal of molecular and cellular cardiology（2014年12月）  文章类型：Review

原文链接：http://www.jmmc-online.com/article/S0022-2828%2814%2900429-5/abstract

文章摘要内容： 
Autophagy, a cellular housekeeping process, is essential to maintain tissue homeostasis, particularly in long-lived cells such as cardiomyocytes. Autophagic activity declines with age and may explain many features of age-related cardiac dysfunction. In this review we summarize the current state of knowledge regarding age-related changes in autophagy in the heart. Recent findings from studies in human hearts are presented, including evidence that the autophagic response is intact in the aged human heart. Impaired autophagic clearance of protein aggregates or deteriorating mitochondria will have multiple consequences including increased arrhythmia risk, decreased contractile function, reduced tolerance to ischemic stress, and increased inflammation; thus autophagy represents a potentially important therapeutic target to mitigate the cardiac consequences of aging. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled CV Aging.

Aging; Autophagy; Cardiac; Human studies; Inflammation