AGE RELATED FIBROSIS IS IMPROVED BY REDUCING COLLAGEN CROSS-LINKING WITH LYSYL OXIDASE INHIBITION

Heart failure is the leading cause of hospitalization of elderly patients. There is a correlation between heart failure and myocardial fibrosis, which is defined as the deposition of excess extracellular matrix proteins such as collagen. A key regulator of collagen homeostasis is lysyl oxidase (LOX), an enzyme that is responsible for crosslinking of deposited collagen fibers. When collagen is cross-linked, it is stable and less prone to degradation. Our objective wasto improve age-related myocardial fibrosis by disrupting collagen cross-linking through inhibiting LOX in a model of age-related fibrosis.