• Question: have u found cases where changes in DNA have influenced heart disease?

    Asked by tlewis to Praveen, Cristina, Gemma, Loan, Michael on 13 Nov 2015. This question was also asked by Vatore.
    • Photo: Michael Schneider

      Michael Schneider answered on 13 Nov 2015:

      Terrific question! In families with heart muscle disease, there are often inherited changes in the DNA sequence of As, Ts, Cs, and Gs, affecting genes that code for the structural or motor proteins that allow heart muscle cells to contract and relax rhythmically. And, in families with birth defects affecting the four chambers of the heart, there are often inherited changes in the DNA sequence of genes that control heart formation very early in life, as an embryo in the uterus. Myself, I study a different kind of change in DNA, which is bundled in human cells into 23 pairs of chromosomes. As cells age, the tips of the chromosomes get shorter. Eventually, chromosome shortening causes cells to stop growing and even to die. I found that this shortening happens more rapidly to heart muscle cells in heart disease, and is likely to make heart disease worsen.

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