Dilated Cardiomyopathy – Exploring the Underlying Causes

Cardiovascular disease is one of the world’s leading causes of natural mortality, taking approximately 18 million lives each year. Dilated cardiomyopathy, a subgroup of cardiac diseases, has an annual incidence of 5 – 8 cases per 100,000 for European and North American populations. Common features of dilated cardiomyopathy include cardiac chamber enlargement, impaired systolic function, reduced ejection fraction, and arrhythmias, with an endpoint of ventricular dilation and heart failure. The focus of this paper is to review the non-genetic and genetic etiologies that lead to dilated cardiomyopathy. The non-genetic causes of dilated cardiomyopathy that are discussed include viruses, cardiotoxicity, recreational drugs, and chemotherapeutic medications. For the genes that lead to dilated cardiomyopathy, the focus of this paper is on cytoskeletal and sarcomeric protein genes. Our scope in defining this area will be to explore numerous mouse models that incorporate mutations found in humans that lead to dilated cardiomyopathy. The purpose of the paper is to define the morphological and physiological consequences of these mutations and how this information has furthered our understanding of the disease. Having gained invaluable knowledge from these animal models, it is hoped that new and improved therapeutic approaches can be developed for the treatment and prevention of dilated cardiomyopathy.