Cardiac rejuvenation: a new hope in the presbycardia nightmare

This editorial refers to ‘Cardiac and systemic rejuvenation after cardiosphere-derived cell therapy in senescent rats’†, by L. Grigorian-Shamagian et al., on page 2957. Heart failure (HF) with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is an insufficiently understood condition which relates to ageing and affects almost 50% of patients with HF.1 Characterized by a heterogeneous pathophysiology, HFpEF is associated with a high number of hospitalizations and deaths, not necessarily linked with cardiovascular diseases.2 Co-morbidities such as hypertension, diabetes, arterial or valvular diseases may be considered as potential aggravating factors, but not the treatable cause of the HFpEF.1 A common aspect of HFpEF patients is myocardial senescence or ‘presbycardia’. As postulated by William Dock in the 1940s, ‘presbycardia indicates that age has altered the ability of the heart to meet its burdens even though there is not significant structural damage’.3 Since the current standard of care of these patients has failed to improve their outcomes significantly, a shift in our therapeutic armamentarium is required, in which novel regenerative strategies have been postulated potentially to revolutionize the way in which Medicine is being practised nowadays.4