Some forms of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) are caused by mutations in cardiac sarcomeric genes, but environmental factors are believed to influence the hypertrophic response. A highly variable but potentially significant environmental factor is diet. Since soy-rich diets have been speculated to confer protection against cardiovascular disease, Stauffer et al. have explored the influence of a soy diet on cardiac growth and function in a transgenic mouse model of HCM (see the related article beginning on page 209). They report that mice fed a soy diet exhibited significantly worse HCM than mice fed a soy-free (milk protein) diet. This study provides the first evidence of an environmental modifier - diet - on the hypertrophic phenotype and has implications for the way in which disease phenotypes are assessed in genetically altered murine models of disease.
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/cathy_hatcher/24/
This article was published in Journal of Clinical Investigation, Volume 116, Issue 1, Pages 16-19.
The published version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1172/JCI27455.
Copyright © 2006 American Society for Clinical Investigation.