The Johns Hopkins HFpEF Center is proud to been one of 5 named AHA Go Red for Women Networks. The objective of the network is to understand the basis for sex differences in development and prevalence of HFpEF. Some of these differences include:
- Sixty percent of patients with HFpEF are women, typically post-menopausal women.
- Women with HFpEF have differences in cardiac structure/function and certain biochemical markers compared to men.
- Animal models suggest that sex differences in biochemical pathways in heart muscle (cyclic guanosine monophosphate - protein kinase G (cGMP-PKG) signaling) may be critical.
- Loss of estrogen at menopause can affect some of these pathways which may have broad adverse effects in the heart, fat tissue, and skeletal muscle.
The AHA Go Red for Women Network aims to better understand and develop personalized approaches for the prevention and management of HFpEF in the following ways:
- Test if the sex bias in HFpEF results from post-menopausal changes by studying the effects of sex hormones on biochemical pathways (cGMP-PKG) that are involved in HFpEF.
- Train a new generation of researchers in translational approaches that consider sex difference in the study of disease states.
- Participate in the national AHA Go Red for Women’s Research Network activities to foster collaboration among researchers from the member institutions.
