Congratulations to Dr. Jochen Steppan, who was awarded an NIH R56 grant from the NIH for his study “Thrombospondin-1’s role in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF)”. This study addresses the underlying changes that happen in the heart of patients who have normal systolic function. This type of heart failure disproportionally affects women after menopause and has a high mortality rate given that there is no treatment available that targets the underlying structural cardiac changes.

In his proposal Dr. Steppan aims to rectify this by evaluating if the matrisomal protein TSP-1 can regulate local mediators of inflammation (such as TGF-beta1), thereby preventing adverse cardiac remodeling. He will test this proposal in multiple disease models with particular focus on the difference between the sexes. Completion of this study over the next year will lay the groundwork for his upcoming R01 application to establish the biology and pathobiology of TSP-1 in a hierarchical manner and evaluate its potential to treat HFpEF by targeting matrix remodeling.