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‹ Fri · 3 Jul 2026
Promising but preliminary

Endomyocardial Gremlin-1 is associated with structural remodeling and adverse clinical outcomes in non-ischemic cardiomyopathy.

Heart tissue protein predicts fibrosis severity and poor outcomes in cardiomyopathy, emerging as both biomarker and potential treatment target.

Harm et al. measured Gremlin-1 in endomyocardial biopsies from non-ischaemic cardiomyopathy patients, finding elevated expression correlated independently with degree of myocardial fibrosis, left ventricular dysfunction, and adverse clinical outcomes including heart failure hospitalisation. Published in Communications Medicine (open access, Nature Portfolio), Gremlin-1 emerges as a novel myocardial tissue biomarker and potential therapeutic target via its role as a BMP antagonist and TGF-beta modulator in the fibrotic cardiomyopathy pathway.

What the study was

Study design
Prospective observational study with endomyocardial biopsy
Population
Non-ischaemic cardiomyopathy patients with endomyocardial biopsy
Category
Diagnostics
Maturity
Exploratory
Journal
Commun Med (Lond)

Why it surfaced

Nature Portfolio (Commun Med) publication of novel biomarker in NICM with direct endomyocardial tissue validation; open access; cardiovascular topic with therapeutic target potential.

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