Khaberni - A recent scientific study has found that maintaining the nerve connection between the heart and the vagus nerve may be a key factor in slowing heart aging.
The study, coordinated by the Santana School of Graduate Studies in Pisa, Italy, and published in the journal "Science Translational Medicine," revealed that the integrity of the dual cardiac innervation acts as an anti-aging factor, with the right vagus nerve emerging as a crucial element in protecting cardiac muscle cells.
The results showed that this protective role for the heart does not necessarily depend on its beating rate, but is directly linked to the integrity of the nerve connection, where the right vagus nerve helps maintain the health of cardiac cells and their functional ability as they age.
The study adopted a multidisciplinary approach, merging experimental medicine with biomedical engineering in cardiovascular research. The research was led by the team from the Transitional Critical Care Unit at the Multidisciplinary Research Center in Health Sciences, headed by Professor Vincenzo Lionetti, along with the laboratory of the Biomedical Robotics Institute led by Professor Silvestro Micera, which contributed to the development of a bio-absorbable neural stent to enhance the regeneration of the vagus nerve.
The study involved a broad alliance of Italian and international research institutions, and Professor Lionetti explained that the loss of connection to the vagus nerve leads to accelerated heart aging, noting that even partial restoration of this connection may be sufficient to limit harmful structural changes in the heart muscle and maintain its contractile efficiency.
Cardiologist Anar Dushpanova, from the Transitional Critical Care Unit, confirmed that reconnecting the right vagus nerve with the heart demonstrated a clear capacity to counteract mechanisms of heart function deterioration.
Biomedical engineering played a pivotal role in these results, where researchers developed a bio-absorbable, implantable neural tube, designed to guide and enhance the natural regeneration of the vagus nerve at the cardiac level, as explained by researcher Eugenio Ridolfi Riva, who participated in developing the patent for the compensatory neural device.
The researchers conclude that these findings open new horizons in cardiac and thoracic surgery, and organ transplantation, as restoring cardiac nerve innervation during surgical procedures may represent an innovative strategy for long-term heart protection, and a qualitative leap from treating early heart aging complications to preventing them from the outset.
