As you may know, the aging heart often exhibits ventricular hypertrophy, an enlargement and weakening of the muscle. This appears driven in large part by the increased burden of cellular senescence in later life, given reversal of hypertrophy observed after senolytic treatment in old animals. This hypertrophy can also be thought as a downstream consequence of hypertension, but biology is rarely so simple as to have a single line of cause and effect. As noted in this paper, people lose muscle mass and strength with age, leading to the weakness and frai…
When Does the Heart Become Larger versus Smaller in Old Age?
As you may know, the aging heart often exhibits ventricular hypertrophy, an enlargement and weakening of the muscle. This appears driven in large part by the increased burden of cellular senescence in later life, given reversal of hypertrophy observed after senolytic treatment in old animals. This hypertrophy can also be thought as a downstream consequence of hypertension, but biology is rarely so simple as to have a single line of cause and effect. As noted in this paper, people lose muscle mass and strength with age, leading to the weakness and frai…