Mechanical unloading of the failing heart exposes the dynamic nature of autophagy

Abstract

Mechanical unloading with a left-ventricular assist device decreases the energy demand of the failing human heart. Here, we describe our recent work showing that markers and mediators of autophagy in the failing heart are down-regulated by mechanical unloading. These observations are consistent with the concept that autophagy may be an adaptive mechanism to secure survival of the failing heart muscle cell.