Int J Med Sci 2017; 14(9):891-895. doi:10.7150/ijms.19854 This issue Cite
Research Paper
1. Unidad de Gestión Clínica Área del Corazón, Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga (IBIMA), Hospital Universitario Virgen de la Victoria, Universidad de Málaga (UMA), CIBERCV Enfermedades Cardiovasculares, Málaga, Spain.
2. Unidad de Gestión Clínica de Endocrinología y Nutrición, Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga (IBIMA), Hospital Universitario Virgen de la Victoria, Málaga, CIBER Fisiopatología Obesidad y Nutrición (CIBERobn), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spain.
3. Servicio de Cardiología, Instituto de Investigación Biomédica A Coruña (INIBIC), Complejo Hospitalario Universitario A Coruña, CIBERCV Enfermedades Cardiovasculares, A Coruña. Spain.
4. Servicio de Cardiología, Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Salamanca (IBISAL), Hospital Universitario de Salamanca, Universidad de Salamanca (USAL), CIBERCV Enfermedades Cardiovasculares, Salamanca, Spain.
*These authors contributed equally to this work: Luis M. Pérez-Belmonte and Inmaculada Moreno-Santos.
Epicardial adipose tissue has been proposed to participate in the pathogenesis of heart failure. The aim of our study was to assess the expression of thermogenic genes (Uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1-alpha (PGC1α), and PR-domain-missing 16 (PRDM16) in epicardial adipose tissue in patients with heart failure, stablishing the difference according to left ventricular ejection fraction (reduced or preserved). Among the 75 patients in our study, 42.7% (n=32) had reduced left ventricular ejection fraction. UCP1, PGC1α and PRDM16 mRNA in EAT were significantly lower in patients with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction. Multiple regression analysis showed that age, male gender, body max index, presence of obesity, type-2-diabetes mellitus, hypertension and coronary artery disease and left ventricular ejection fraction were associated with the expression levels of UCP1, PGC1α and PRDM16 mRNA. Thermogenic genes expressions in epicardial adipose tissue (UCP1: OR 0.617, 95%CI 0.103-0.989, p=0.042; PGC1α: OR 0.416, 95%CI 0.171-0.912, p=0.031; PRDM16: OR 0.643, 95%CI 0.116-0.997, p=0.044) were showed as protective factors against the presence of heart failure with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction, and age (OR 1.643, 95%CI 1.001-3.143, p=0.026), presence of coronary artery disease (OR 6.743, 95%CI 1.932-15.301, p<0.001) and type-2-diabetes mellitus (OR 4.031, 95%CI 1.099-7.231, p<0.001) were associated as risk factors. The adequate expression of thermogenic genes has been shown as possible protective factors against heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, suggesting that a loss of functional epicardial adipose tissue brown-like features would participate in a deleterious manner on heart metabolism. Thermogenic genes could represent a future novel therapeutic target in heart failure.
Keywords: Epicardial adipose tissue, heart failure, left ventricular ejection fraction, thermogenic genes.