Study: Pigment in bile offers new potential treatment for heart attack

A pigment in human’s bile may provide natural protection from heart attacks and help to ward off cardiovascular disease, a new study suggests.

Dr Andrew Bulmer from the Griffith University's Menzies Health Institute Queensland (MHIQ) reveals that when hearts are infused with mildly elevated levels of a bile pigment, called bilirubin, following an attack, the pigment reduces damage and improves heart function during recovery.

Bile refers to fluid produced by the liver and stored in the gallbladder, which aids the digestion process.

The new findings, published in the International Journal of Cardiology, are important since only a few drugs are able to be administered following a heart attack to improve heart function, according to Bulmer. “Generally, bilirubin was just associated with people having jaundice; however we have now shown that mildly elevated bilirubin is actually beneficial, naturally protecting an individual against cardiovascular disease,” he notes.

An additional research, published in Free Radical Biology and Medicine, has shown that higher levels of bilirubin can protect the circulation from oxidative damage that causes blood vessel disease. “We believe that this protection could be related to recently identified anti-oxidative property of the bilirubin molecule,” says Bulmer.

According to the study, inflammation is the main culprit of damage to the body and is caused by over-active white blood cells that release 'free radicals'. It appears that the human’s natural bilirubin can protect from these free radicals during chronic inflammatory diseases like cardiovascular disease, kidney disease and diabetes.

Currently, five to 10 per cent of the population is believed to have mildly elevated levels of bilirubin in their blood, a condition with no negative side effects called Gilbert's Syndrome. People with this syndrome have a 30 to 60 per cent reduced chance of having cardiovascular disease and a 50 per cent reduced risk from dying of any cause.

Bulmer says that his findings could have positive implications for reducing health risks and improving life expectancy, as a result of increasing the bilirubin concentration in people who have low levels of the pigment in blood.

In addition to using bilirubin as a biomarker for measuring people's future risk of various chronic diseases, there is a very real possibility that it could be used as a treatment after a heart attack to reduce damage to the heart and possibly improve survival, Bulmer says.

Cardiovascular disease is one of Australia's largest health problems and remains one of the biggest burdens in the country’s economy, according to Heart Foundation. It is estimated that each year, around 54,000 Australians suffer a heart attack, translating to one heart attack every nine minutes. In 2013, more than 8,000 deaths were attributed to heart attack, or on average, 24 each day.

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