Urolithin A Reverses HFpEF Signs in Mice, Improves Human Heart Tissue in 120 Minutes
Updated
Updated · studyfinds.com · Aug 20
Urolithin A Reverses HFpEF Signs in Mice, Improves Human Heart Tissue in 120 Minutes
2 articles · Updated · studyfinds.com · Aug 20
Summary
Seven days of oral urolithin A reversed key signs of HFpEF in mice, improving heart relaxation and exercise capacity while reducing heart weight, cell enlargement and fibrosis.
Researchers traced the effect to PKGIα at cysteine 42, showing benefits largely disappeared in genetically altered mice lacking that target and identifying a nitric-oxide-independent mechanism.
Engineered human heart tissue also responded: contraction and relaxation became faster within 120 minutes, with no dangerous irregular beating observed in the lab model.
HFpEF accounts for nearly half of heart failure cases and remains hard to treat because the heart pumps normally but stays too stiff to relax and fill properly.
The Science Advances study is still preclinical—limited to male mice and one donor-derived human tissue line—and does not show that pomegranates or supplements treat heart failure in people.