Year 1

Heart failure is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in California and the Western world with a significant economic burden due to the disease. Over half of heart failure cases are due to dilated cardiomyopathy, a disorder of progressive ventricular dilation and decreased contractility. However, after ischemic cardiomyopathy, the majority of familial cases of dilated cardiomyopathy are unknown or “idiopathic”, suggesting a polygenic etiology with a complex genetic-environmental interaction. Traditionally, studying this disorder has been impaired by inability to access cardiac tissue and the limitation of mouse models in recapitulating the disorder. Thus, we propose using human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to study idiopathic familial dilated cardiomyopathy (IFDC). We propose collecting tissue from individuals identified with the disorder In summary, this proposal represents a unique
opportunity to improve our understanding of idiopathic familial dilated cardiomyopathy (which remains largely a mystery), identifying novel genetic causes (rendering many of these patients no longer “idiopathic), and proposing new therapeutic targets.