Ageing, the autonomic nervous system and arrhythmia: From brain to heart.

Ageing, the autonomic nervous system and arrhythmia: From brain to heart. Ageing Res Rev. 2018 Oct 06;: Authors: Chadda KR, Ajijola OA, Vaseghi M, Shivkumar K, Huang CL, Jeevaratnam K Abstract An ageing myocardium possesses significant electrophysiological alterations that predisposes the elderly patient to arrhythmic risk. Whilst these alterations are intrinsic to the cardiac myocytes, they are modulated by the cardiac autonomic nervous system (ANS) and consequently, ageing of the cardiac ANS is fundamental to the development of arrhythmias. A systems-based approach that incorporates the influence of the cardiac ANS could lead to better mechanistic understanding of how arrhythmogenic triggers and substrates interact spatially and temporally to produce sustained arrhythmia and why its incidence increases with age. Despite the existence of physiological oscillations of ANS activity on the heart, pathological oscillations can lead to defective activation and recovery properties of the myocardium. Such changes can be attributable to the decrease in functionality and structural alterations to ANS specific receptors in the myocardium with age. These altered ANS adaptive responses can occur either as a normal ageing process or accelerated in the presence of specific cardiac pathologies, such as genetic mutations or neurodegenerative conditions. Targeted intervention that seek to manipulate the ageing ANS influence on the myocardium may pro...
Source: Ageing Research Reviews - Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Tags: Ageing Res Rev Source Type: research