Association of Cardiotrophin-1 With Myocardial Fibrosis in Hypertensive Patients With Heart Failure

Cardiotrophin-1 has been shown to be profibrogenic in experimental models. The aim of this study was to analyze whether cardiotrophin-1 is associated with left ventricular end-diastolic stress and myocardial fibrosis in hypertensive patients with heart failure. Endomyocardial biopsies from patients (n=31) and necropsies from 7 control subjects were studied. Myocardial cardiotrophin-1 protein and mRNA and the fraction of myocardial volume occupied by collagen were increased in patients compared with controls ( P r =0.653, P r =0.541, P r =0.588, P r =0.556, P r =0.450; P P r =0.386; P r =0.550; P r =0.267; P P P P