Heart failure affects more than 5 million Americans, according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
While the condition can be treated and managed, there is no cure for it. The development, which occurs when the heart’s ability to pump gets weaker over time, is known to disrupt iron metabolism, Medical News Today reported. That leads to iron deficiency in about 50% of patients.
“But it is unclear whether these changes in the processing of iron are harmful or actually protect the heart from further damage,” Medical News Today said.
The website reported on a study from researchers at the United Kingdom’s King’s College London and Japan’s Osaka Medical College and Osaka University. The findings, which were published Feb. 2 online in the journal eLife, indicate that excess levels of free iron in the heart could make heart failure worse.
Intravenous iron supplements given to heart failure patients have been shown to treat their symptoms in clinical trials. But scientists behind the newly published study say their results display concerns about that treatment continuing for a long time.
“Patients with heart failure who are iron deficient are currently treated with iron supplements, which previous studies have shown reduces their symptoms,” said senior author Professor Kinya Otsu, British Heart Foundation Professor of Cardiology at King’s College London. “While our work does not contradict those studies, it does suggest that reducing iron-dependent cell death in the heart could be a potential new treatment strategy for patients.”
Researchers used mice to investigate the effect of keeping iron stored in the protein called ferritin instead of the usual chain of events. A protein called nuclear receptor coactivator 4 (NCOA4) triggers stored iron to be released from the ferritin in cells amid low free iron levels.
Scientists began by genetically engineering mice without the gene that makes NCOA4 in their heart muscle cells. They simulated heart failure in those mice and normal rodents and discovered that the hearts of the created mice had fewer harmful changes.
Mice lacking in NCOA4 didn’t produce excessive levels of either free iron or the toxic free radicals, which kill cells in heart failure cases.
“Our results suggest that the release of iron can be detrimental to the heart,” Jumpei Ito of King’s College London’s cardiovascular division concluded. “It can lead to unstable oxygen levels, death in heart cells and ultimately heart failure.”
Heart failure requires lifelong treatment. According to the Mayo Clinic, doctors usually treat the condition with a combination of medications including ACE inhibitors, beta-blockers and diuretics, the latter of which treats the collection of water in the body that’s associated with the heart failure. There are also medical devices and surgical treatments.
Lifestyle changes can also provide relief from symptoms of heart disease, which can include fatigue, rapid or irregular heartbeat and swift weight gain from water retention.
If you are experiencing symptoms of what you believe might be heart failure, see your doctor as it is a serious condition that requires medical care, the NHLBI reported.
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