idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
idw - Informationsdienst
Wissenschaft
Bonn, 22 April 2026 – Until now, there have been few therapeutic options for children with severely reduced heart pump function. Recently, surgical constriction of the pulmonary artery has been introduced as an innovative approach to deliberately “train” the heart. Researchers at the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) and the University of Bonn investigated the underlying biological mechanisms of this approach.
Using a mouse model, they demonstrated that pressure overload in the early neonatal heart triggers regenerative mechanisms in both ventricles, which increases the number of heart muscle and vascular cells. The results of the study have now been published in the American Heart Association journal "Circulation."
The heart supplies the body with oxygen-rich blood. Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide –heart failure, in particular, which is caused by a reduced pumping function of the heart, has a poor prognosis. Even in children with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), in which the pumping function is reduced due to enlargement of the heart muscle the therapeutic options have been very limited to date. In recent years, a surgical procedure has been developed for these children, namely pulmonary artery constriction or “banding”, which aims to specifically "train" the heart. Initial clinical experience is promising, but this method has so far only been used in a few centers – partly because the underlying biological mechanisms are largely unknown.
Researchers at the Institute of Physiology I and the Department of Neonatology and Pediatric Intensive Care Medicine at the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) have addressed this issue. "We hypothesized that pressure overload can activate regenerative mechanisms in the heart", explained corresponding author Dr. Mona Malek Mohammadi, group leader at the Institute of Physiology I at the UKB. The team therefore established corresponding models in newborn mice. Their investigations revealed that if pressure overload is induced in one ventricle shortly after birth, the heart activates a regeneration program in both ventricles. As a result, the number of heart muscle cells increases through cell division, and new blood vessels are formed.
Synchronized growth of both ventricles of the heart, thanks to their crosstalk
"Regardless of whether the pressure overload was induced in the right or left ventricle, the unaffected ventricle also responded", says first author Dr. Fabian Ebach, a BONFOR fellow of the University of Bonn and specialist in the Department of Neonatology and Pediatric Intensive Care Medicine, where newborns with right ventricular pressure overload are regularly treated. His colleague and co-first author Julia Nicke adds: "This points to a previously unknown mechanism of 'ventricular crosstalk,' in which both ventricles of the heart communicate with each other and synchronize their growth."
If the procedure is performed seven days after birth, there is no longer any regenerative effect. Instead, the heart muscle cells enlarge. This hypertrophic growth, which is observed in many heart diseases, ultimately leads to a progressive decline in pump function over time. The regenerative mechanisms triggered by pressure overload in the neonatal heart are therefore lost relatively early- potentially explaining why only early surgical 'heart training' can contribute to functional recovery."
Funding: The study was funded by the BONFOR program of the Medical Faculty of the University of Bonn (Dr. Fabian Ebach) and the German Heart Research Foundation (F/16/22, Dr. Mona Malek Mohammadi).
Scientific contact:
Dr. Mona Malek Mohammadi
Institute of Physiology I
University Hospital Bonn and University of Bonn
Phone: +49 (0) 228 28762-216
Email: mona.malekmohammadi@uni-bonn.de
Publication: Fabian Ebach, Julia Nicke, Tianyuan Hu, Hemmen Sabir, Andreas Müller, Bernd K. Fleischmann, Mona Malek Mohammadi: Pressure Overload-Induced Ventricular Crosstalk Activates Regenerative Mechanisms in the Contralateral Ventricle in Neonatal Mice; AHAJs Circulation, DOI: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.125.077779
(from left): Julia Nicke, Dr Fabian Ebach and Dr Mona Malek Mohammadi have found that an early “card ...
Source: R. Müller
Copyright: University Hospital Bonn
Criteria of this press release:
Journalists, Scientists and scholars, Students, all interested persons
Medicine
transregional, national
Research results, Scientific Publications
English
You can combine search terms with and, or and/or not, e.g. Philo not logy.
You can use brackets to separate combinations from each other, e.g. (Philo not logy) or (Psycho and logy).
Coherent groups of words will be located as complete phrases if you put them into quotation marks, e.g. “Federal Republic of Germany”.
You can also use the advanced search without entering search terms. It will then follow the criteria you have selected (e.g. country or subject area).
If you have not selected any criteria in a given category, the entire category will be searched (e.g. all subject areas or all countries).
