Our previous study suggests that activin regulates muscle aging via autophagy. In this studywe investigated whether genetic manipulation of activin signaling within fly hearts affect cardiac functions during aging. Cardiac-specific expressed activin type I receptor Babo led to pre-matured cardiac aging phenotypes and altered cardiac functions at young age. In contrast, cardiac-specific knockdown the expression of key activin genes, daw and babo results in preserved cardiac function with age (e.g. prevents the age-dependent increases of heart period and diastolic intervals, as well as the incidence of arrhythmia). Interestingly, reduction in cardiac activin prolongs lifespan. These data suggest that activin signaling plays a key role in cardiac aging.