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  2. Endoplasmic reticulum stress-induced iRhom2 up-regulation promotes macrophage-regulated cardiac inflammation and lipid deposition in high fat diet (HFD)-challenged mice: Intervention of fisetin and metformin

Endoplasmic reticulum stress-induced iRhom2 up-regulation promotes macrophage-regulated cardiac inflammation and lipid deposition in high fat diet (HFD)-challenged mice: Intervention of fisetin and metformin

  • Free Radic Biol Med. 2019 Sep;141:67-83. doi: 10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2019.05.031.
Chen-Xu Ge 1 Min-Xuan Xu 2 Yu-Ting Qin 3 Ting-Ting Gu 4 De-Shuai Lou 1 Qiang Li 1 Lin-Feng Hu 1 Bo-Chu Wang 5 Jun Tan 6
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Chongqing Key Laboratory of Medicinal Resources in the Three Gorges Reservoir Region, School of Biological and Chemical Engineering, Chongqing University of Education, Chongqing, 400067, PR China; Research Center of Brain Intellectual Promotion and Development for Children Aged 0-6 Years, Chongqing University of Education, Chongqing, 400067, PR China.
  • 2 Chongqing Key Laboratory of Medicinal Resources in the Three Gorges Reservoir Region, School of Biological and Chemical Engineering, Chongqing University of Education, Chongqing, 400067, PR China; Research Center of Brain Intellectual Promotion and Development for Children Aged 0-6 Years, Chongqing University of Education, Chongqing, 400067, PR China. Electronic address: minxuanxu@foxmail.com.
  • 3 School of Medicine and Pharmacy, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, 266100, PR China.
  • 4 College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210023, PR China.
  • 5 Key Laboratory of Biorheological Science and Technology (Chongqing University), Ministry of Education, College of Bioengineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400030, China. Electronic address: wangbc2000@126.com.
  • 6 Chongqing Key Laboratory of Medicinal Resources in the Three Gorges Reservoir Region, School of Biological and Chemical Engineering, Chongqing University of Education, Chongqing, 400067, PR China; Research Center of Brain Intellectual Promotion and Development for Children Aged 0-6 Years, Chongqing University of Education, Chongqing, 400067, PR China. Electronic address: tanjunmail@126.com.
Abstract

Endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS) has been implicated in obesity-associated cardiac remodeling and dysfunction. Inactive rhomboid protein 2 (iRhom2), also known as Rhbdf2, is an inactive member of the rhomboid intramembrane proteinase family, playing an essential role in regulating inflammation. Nevertheless, the role of ERS-meditated iRhom2 pathway in metabolic stress-induced cardiomyopathy remains unknown. In the study, we showed that 4-PBA, as an essential ERS inhibitor, significantly alleviated high fat diet (HFD)-induced metabolic disorder and cardiac dysfunction in mice. Additionally, lipid deposition in heart tissues was prevented by 4-PBA in HFD-challenged mice. Moreover, 4-PBA blunted the expression of iRhom2, TACE, TNFR2 and phosphorylated NF-κB to prevent HFD-induced expression of inflammatory factors. Further, 4-PBA restrained HFD-triggered oxidative stress by promoting Nrf-2 signaling. Importantly, 4-PBA markedly suppressed cardiac ERS in HFD mice. The anti-inflammation, anti-ERS and anti-oxidant effects of 4-PBA were verified in palmitate (PAL)-incubated macrophages and cardiomyocytes. In addition, promoting ERS could obviously enhance iRhom2 signaling in vitro. Intriguingly, our data demonstrated that PAL-induced iRhom2 up-regulation apparently promoted macrophage to generate inflammatory factors that could promote cardiomyocyte inflammation and lipid accumulation. Finally, interventions by adding fisetin or metformin significantly abrogated metabolic stress-induced cardiomyopathy through the mechanisms mentioned above. In conclusion, this study provided a novel mechanism for metabolic stress-induced cardiomyopathy pathogenesis. Therapeutic strategy to restrain ROS/ERS/iRhom2 signaling pathway could be developed to prevent myocardial inflammation and lipid deposition, consequently alleviating obesity-induced cardiomyopathy.

Keywords

Cardiomyopathy; Inflammation; Lipid deposition; Obesity; ROS/ERS/iRhom2.

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