New Treatment Strategies to Combat Heart Failure
Sponsored by the APS Cardiovascular Section
Supported by the William Townsend Porter Foundation

Heart failure is a devastating disease characterized by left ventricular dysfunction that is associated with a complex of symptoms that ultimately result in inadequate perfusion of tissues and pulmonary congestion.  Despite the development of novel therapies for the treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease the incidence of heart failure is increasing and each year there are over 1 million hospitalizations for decompensated heart failure in the United States alone. Clearly, novel therapeutics are required to treat persons with a number of forms of heart failure. One major hurdle in our understanding of the pathophysiology of heart failure is the present lack of precise molecular and cellular insights into this complex disease process. The advent of gene-targeted and mutant mouse strains has greatly aided in the elucidation of a number of cardiovascular disease states.  Gene-targeted mice provide an excellent research tool to investigate the physiological impact of a single gene mutation in the setting of heart failure. This symposium will focus on recent physiological research performed using gene-targeted mice in various models of heart failure. Speakers will present novel information in murine models of heart failure induced by aortic banding and cardiac hypertrophy as well as acute myocardial infarction. Speakers will address important aspects of nitric oxide (NO) derived by eNOS and iNOS and heart failure. Speakers will address the role of oxidant species in the pathophysiology of heart failure. Speakers will present highly novel new data on PDE-5 inhibition and cardiac hypertrophy in heart failure. Furthermore, speakers will also address the importance of the beta adrenergic system and heart failure with an emphasis on cell signaling. This symposium will provide important insights into murine models of heart failure and also provide new and important information regarding the molecular and cellular pathophysiology of heart failure.  This symposium is likely to benefit cardiovascular researchers of all backgrounds and experience levels.