Prevention of Cardiac Hypertrophy in Mice by Calcineurin Inhibition

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is an inherited form of heart disease that affects 1 in 500 individuals. Here it is shown that calcineurin, a calcium-regulated phosphatase, plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of HCM. Administration of the calcineurin inhibitors cyclosporin and FK506 prevented disease in mice that were genetically predisposed to develop HCM as a result of aberrant expression of tropomodulin, myosin light chain–2, or fetal β-tropomyosin in the heart. Cyclosporin had a similar effect in a rat model of pressure-overload hypertrophy. These results suggest that calcineurin inhibitors merit investigation as potential therapeutics for certain forms of human heart disease.