Review Advance Articles
Age-associated changes in the heart: implications for COVID-19 therapies
Figure 2. Effects of aging on heart. As the heart ages, it experiences a range of structural, functional, cellular, and genetic changes. Structural alterations include vascular stiffness, thickening of the left ventricular wall, fibrosis, and enlargement of the atrium. Functional changes manifest as reduced cardiac output, atherosclerosis, and dysfunction in cardiac autonomic regulation. At the cellular level, there’s mitochondrial dysfunction, heightened fibrosis, amyloid fibril formation, and endothelial senescence. Additionally, genetic alterations such as DNA damage, endothelial dysfunction, and telomerase shortening occur with age.