What is myocardial mitochondria?
Myocardial mitochondria is the main site of cardiac energy metabolism, whose dysfunction is an important factor leading to cardiac dysfunction and heart failure. Mitochondria are highly dynamic organelles.
What causes cardiomyopathy?
Causes
- Long-term high blood pressure.
- Heart tissue damage from a heart attack.
- Long-term rapid heart rate.
- Heart valve problems.
- COVID-19 infection.
- Certain infections, especially those that cause inflammation of the heart.
- Metabolic disorders, such as obesity, thyroid disease or diabetes.
What are the mechanical functions of the heart?
The heart pumps blood and nutrients to all organs to support their normal function. Synchronized contraction of the myocardium generates pressure to drive the blood flow in arteries to distal organs and the constant repetitive pumping action maintains the circulation to all organs.
Are mitochondria found in cardiac muscle cells?
Our heart muscles contain so much mitochondria because those muscles are very active in our body and require lots of energy to constantly pump blood through our circulatory system. Mitochondria produce energy in the form of ATP from glucose (sugar) in our cells.
What does mitochondria do in the heart?
The heart relies mainly on mitochondrial metabolism to provide the energy needed for pumping blood to oxygenate the organs of the body.
How does mitochondria cause heart disease?
Mitochondrial dysfunction is believed to be associated with numerous cardiac diseases, such as atherosclerosis, ischemia–reperfusion injury, heart failure, and hypertension, presumably due to insufficient cellular energy production and uncontrolled production of ROS.
What is the best way to assess the mechanical function of the heart?
A variety of visualization methods are available assessing cardiac mechanical function, the most common of which is echocardiography.
What is mitochondrial function in the heart?
Mitochondria play critical roles in both the life and death of cardiac myocytes. In healthy cells, their primary function is to meet the high energy demand of the beating heart by providing ATP through oxidative phosphorylation.
Can mitochondria cause heart disease?
Mitochondrial dysfunction is associated with the development of numerous cardiac diseases such as atherosclerosis, ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury, hypertension, diabetes, cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure (HF), due to the uncontrolled production of reactive oxygen species (ROS).