The Human Cardiac “Age-OME”: Age-specific changes in myocardial molecular expression

Ageing is one of the most significant risk factors for heart disease, however, it is still not clear how the human heart changes with age. Taking advantage of a unique set of pre-mortem, cryopreserved, non-diseased human hearts, we performed omics analyses (transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and lipidomics), coupled with biologically-informed computational modelling in younger (≤25 years old) and older hearts (≥50 years old) to describe the molecular landscape of human cardiac ageing. In older hearts, we observed a downregulation of proteins involved in calcium signalling and contractile apparatus. Furthermore, we found a potential dysregulation of central carbon generation of fuel, glycolysis and fatty acids oxidation, along with an increase in long-chain fatty acids. This study presents and analyses the first molecular data set of normal human cardiac ageing, which has relevant implications for understanding the human cardiac ageing process and the development of age-related heart disease.