ORIGINAL ARTICLE: Heart disease is common in humans and chimpanzees, but is caused by different pathological processes

Abstract

Heart disease is common in both humans and chimpanzees, manifesting typically as sudden cardiac arrest or progressive heart failure. Surprisingly, although chimpanzees are our closest evolutionary relatives, the major cause of heart disease is different in the two species. Histopathology data of affected chimpanzee hearts from two primate centers, and analysis of literature indicate that sudden death in chimpanzees (and in gorillas and orangutans) is commonly associated with diffuse interstitial myocardial fibrosis of unknown cause. In contrast, most human heart disease results from coronary artery atherosclerosis, which occludes myocardial blood supply, causing ischemic damage. The typical myocardial infarction of humans due to coronary artery thrombosis is rare in these apes, despite their human-like coronary-risk-prone blood lipid profiles. Instead, chimpanzee ‘heart attacks’ are likely due to arrythmias triggered by myocardial fibrosis. Why do humans not often suffer from the fibrotic heart disease so common in our closest evolutionary cousins? Conversely, why do chimpanzees not have the kind of heart disease so common in humans? The answers could be of value to medical care, as well as to understanding human evolution. A preliminary attempt is made to explore possibilities at the histological level, with a focus on glycosylation changes.

Evolution of the human lifespan and diseases of aging: Roles of infection, inflammation, and nutrition

“…Subsequent well-maintained colonies on more standardized diets are puzzlingly divergent for blood lipids: chimpanzees at Yerkes were hypercholesterolemic (44), whereas those at Phoenix had normal cholesterol (45). The Phoenix colony also reported changes in LDL and HDL subfractions that were offsetting in risk by clinical criteria.…”

Primate aging in the mammalian scheme: the puzzle of extreme variation in brain aging

“…The most common causes of older chimpanzee deaths in captivity in current colonies are related to congestive heart failure from myocardial fibrosis (Varki et al 2009(Varki et al , 2011. Ischemic coronary disease may have been more prevalent in earlier colonies (Finch and Stanford 2004;Finch 2010).…”

Genomic approaches to studying human-specific developmental traits

“…At the same time, our species has acquired a unique profile of susceptibility to different diseases compared with our close relatives. Some examples are AIDS (Varki and Altheide, 2005), cardiovascular disease (Varki et al, 2009), neurodegenerative disease (Finch, 2010) and psychiatric disorders (Crow, 2000(Crow, , 2007. Our high burden of neurological disease may be an 'Achilles heel' associated with cognitive adaptations (Crow, 2000(Crow, , 2007.…”