Cardiac Fibroblasts Revealed as Key Players in Heart Failure Progression

Heart failure (HF) is one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide, affecting millions of people and placing an enormous burden on health care systems. The disease occurs when the heart can no longer pump blood efficiently, leaving patients short of breath, fatigued, and at risk of life-threatening complications. For decades, scientists have focused on studying cardiomyocytes—the heart's muscle cells responsible for pumping blood—believing that these were the key drivers of the disease. But new research challenges this long-standing view by showing that another, often-overlooked group of cells plays a central role in HF progression. A study published inNature Cardiovascular Research, reveals how a specialized type of cardiac fibroblast—cells that traditionally provide structural support—can actively worsen HF. A research team led by Professor Shinsuke Yuasa from the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama University, Japan, along with Dr. Jin Komuro from The University of Tokyo, Japan, discovered that these fibroblasts use asignaling pathwayknown as the MYC–CXCL1–CXCR2 axis to promote harmful changes in the heart.