Role of NHE-1 in Cardiac Hypertrophy and Heart Failure

Abstract

Heart failure has become an immense medical problem which is reaching epidemic proportions. Death rates from heart failure more than doubled in the past 10 years. In the United States alone, there are almost 5,000,000 individuals who have heart failure with more than a half-million new cases diagnosed each year. Currently, the 5-year mortality rate for heart failure is about 50 percent. In addition to mortality from pump failure, these patients exhibit an incidence of sudden cardiac death at 6–9 times the rate of the general population. In developing strategies for the treatment of heart failure, it is important to appreciate that this is not a disease per se but rather a complex clinical syndrome which is the final common pathway for numerous cellular and molecular defects caused by many instigating factors, the most common of which being myocardial infarction. Indeed, improved survival rates in patients who have had a myocardial infarct represents one of the major reasons for the tremendous increase in heart failure although other factors such as an aging population also represent important contributing factors. As a result of advances in molecular and cellular biology, it is now known that heart failure extends beyond abnormal heart function and organ physiology but involves numerous intracellular defects.