Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS AND VIEWS

The heart is put at risk of rupture by cells bordering damaged tissue

After a heart attack, cardiac muscle cells at the border between injured and healthy tissue instigate an inflammatory response, which spreads to neighbouring cells and makes the heart wall vulnerable to tearing.
  1. Kory Lavine

    1. Kory Lavine is in the Center for Cardiovascular Research, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri 63110, USA.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

Cardiovascular diseases are among the top causes of illness and death worldwide. Heart attacks (myocardial infarction), and the heart failure that results owing to a loss of blood supply (ischaemia) and injury to cardiac tissue, remain the main causes of cardiovascular disease and have been increasing in frequency and severity over the past five years1. A devastating complication of myocardial infarction is the rupture of the heart’s muscular wall, which is associated with a more than 50% chance of dying2. Writing in Nature, Ninh et al.3 identify the sequence of mechanical and cellular events that lead to cardiac rupture, providing clues to how this life-threatening scenario can be prevented.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-02436-z

References

  1. Martin, S. S. et al. Circulation 149, e347–e913 (2024).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Damluji, A. A. et al. Circulation 144, e16–e35 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Ninh, V. K. et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07806-1 (2024).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Hilgendorf, I., Frantz, S. & Frangogiannis, N. G. Circ. Res. 134, 1718–1751 (2024).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Kuppe, C. et al. Nature 608, 766–777 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. King, K. R. et al. Nature Med. 23, 1481–1487 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Calcagno, D. M. et al. Sci. Immunol. 5, eaaz1974 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Cao, D. J. et al. Circulation 137, 2613–2634 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links