London, Jan 13 (IANS) Scientists seem to have found the “missing link” between heart failure, our genes and environment.
A new study by a Cambridge University team could open up completely new ways of managing and treating heart disease.

It compared heart tissue from two groups - patients with end-stage heart failure and those with healthy hearts.

The diseased tissue came from men who had undergone heart transplants at Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, and the healthy hearts from age-matched victims of road traffic accidents.

Roger Foo of Cambridge, who led the study says: “DNA methylation leaves ‘marks’ on the genome, and there is already good evidence that these marks are strongly influenced by environment and diet.”

“We found that this process is different in diseased and normal hearts. Linking all these things together suggests this may be the ‘missing link’ between environmental factors and heart failure,” he adds.

“The next stage of our research is to find hotspots in the genome. This should help us identify people at risk of heart disease, and pinpoint patients whose disease will progress fastest,” adds Foo.

The researchers found that specific regions of the DNA in the diseased hearts contained “marks” known as DNA methylation, whereas the healthy hearts did not. This is the first study linking DNA methylation with human heart failure, according to a university release.

DNA methylation is already known to play a key part in development of most cancers, and its role in other complex diseases such as schizophrenia and diabetes is being investigated.

The research is published today in PLoS ONE.