Herz-Kreislaufnetz im NGFN

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Speaker and Coordinator

Prof. Dr. Hugo A. Katus

University of Heidelberg

Internal Medicine III / Cardiology, Angiology and Pulmonary Medicine

Im Neuenheimer Feld 410

69120 Heidelberg

email: sekretariat_katus@med.uni-heidelberg.de

Phone: 06221-56 8670

Cardiovascular diseases are by far the most frequent causes of death in the western developed countries. Because of the successful fight against other causes of death (e.g. infections or malnutrition) in the future much more people will die of cardiovascular diseases.

It is well known that risk factors like smoking, obesity, reduced activity, and high cholesterol promote the development of severe cardiovascular disease. But not all smokers or obese persons actually will be taken ill. On the other hand we sometimes see even young sportsmen with a healthy life style who have never smoked any cigarette but nevertheless suffering from a severe heart failure or myocardial infarction, undergoing heart transplantation and sometimes finally dieing. These cases clearly show that a hereditary disposition must be seen a significant risk factors in cardiovascular diseases. The heritability can be especially proved in affected families, when tragically one family member after another falls ill from a certain cardiovascular disease.

Unveiling the genetic causes and molecular pathways from the level of the genes up to the clinical phenotype can only be achieved by interdisciplinary research. To reach this final destination is the common goal of German researchers from clinical and basic working groups within the Herz-Kreislauf-Netz (“cardiovascular disease network”) as part of the (“Nationales Genomforschungsnetz”). Relevant genes or “candidate genes” will be identified by population genetic analysis and functionally verified in animal models (mouse, zebra fish). A therapeutic intervention could be a molecular repair of the affected genes.