Cardiomyopathy in Thalassemia: Quick Review from Cellular Aspects to Diagnosis and Current Treatments

Abstract

Abstract Background Cardiomyopathic manifestations induced by continuous blood transfusion are the leading cause of death among patients with thalassemia major (TM). Despite introduction of chelation therapy, heart failure after cardiomyopathic manifestations is still a major threat to patients. Methods We performed a search of relevant English-language literature, retrieving publications from the PubMed database and the Google Scholar search engine (2005–2018). We used “thalassemia major”, “cardiomyopathy”, “iron overload”, “cardiac magnetic resonance T2” “chelation therapy”, and “iron burden” as keywords. Results The results of the studies we found suggest that cardiac hepcidin is a major regulator of iron homeostasis in cardiac tissue. Unlike previous assumptions, the heart appears to have a limited regeneration capability, originating from a small population of hypoxic cardiomyocytes. Conclusions Oxygen levels determine cardiomyocyte gene-expression patterns. Upregulation of cardiac hepcidin in hypoxia preserves cardiomyocytes from forming out of reactive oxygen species catalyzed by free cellular iron in cardiomyocytes. Using the limited regeneration capacity of cardiac cells and gaining further understanding of the cellular aspects of cardiomyopathic manifestations may help health care professionals to develop new therapeutic strategies.