Apelin administration ameliorates high fat diet-induced cardiac hypertrophy and contractile dysfunction

Apelin has been recognized as an adipokine that plays an important role in regulating energy metabolism and is credited with antiobesity and antidiabetic properties. This study was designed to examine the effect of exogenous apelin on obesity-associated cardiac dysfunction. Oral glucose tolerance test, echocardiography, cardiomyocyte contractile and intracellular Ca2+ properties were assessed in adult C57BL/6 J mice fed – low or a – high-fat diet for 24 weeks followed by apelin treatment (100 nmol/kg, i.p. for 2 weeks). High-fat diet resulted in increased left ventricular diastolic and systolic diameters, and wall thickness, compromised fractional shortening, impaired cardiomyocyte mechanics (peak-shortening, maximal velocity of shortening/relengthening, and duration of shortening and relengthening) and compromised intracellular Ca2+ handling, all of which were reconciled by apelin. Apelin treatment also reversed high fat diet-induced changes in intracellular Ca2+ regulatory proteins, ER stress, and autophagy. In addition, microRNAs (miR) -133a, miR-208 and miR-1 which were elevated following high-fat feeding were attenuated by apelin treatment. In cultured cardiomyocytes apelin reconciled palmitic acid-induced cardiomyocyte contractile anomalies. Collectively, these data depict a pivotal role of apelin in obesity-associated cardiac contractile dysfunction, suggesting a therapeutic potential of apelin in the management of cardiac dysfunction associated with obesity.