Gene expression profiling and enrichment functional analyses to compare coronary microvessels and cardiomyocytes in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and arterial hypertension (AH) are characterized by pathologic remodelling of intramural coronary arterioles, which is the substrate of coronary microvascular dysfunction (CMD) and myocardial ischemia, in absence of coronary artery stenosis. In both conditions remodelling consists in vessel wall thickening, due to medial smooth muscle hypertrophy/proliferation and collagen deposition with different degrees of intimal thickening and perivascular fibrosis. The transcriptome associated with dysfunctional coronary microvessels and cardiomyocytes has never been investigated in patients with HCM. Assess the difference in gene expression profile between HCM and normal heart, both in coronary microvessels and cardiomyocytes are necessary to shed light on the pathogenic mechanism of microvascular remodelling. A better understanding of the pathogenesis of coronary microvascular remodelling could lead to the development of novel specific therapies for CMD.