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(Hypertension. 2005;45:1031.)
© 2005 American Heart Association, Inc.
Brief Reviews |
From the Gifford Laboratories, Touchstone Center for Diabetes Research, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, and Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Dallas, Tex.
Correspondence to Roger H. Unger, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, 5323 Harry Hines Blvd, Dallas, TX 75390-8854. E-mail roger.unger{at}utsouthwestern.edu
| Abstract |
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| Deducing the Function of Hyperleptinemia |
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| Evidence for Leptin-Dependent Lipid Partitioning |
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Leptin deficiency states are extremely rare, the most common form being congenital generalized lipodystrophy, which is caused by the lack of leptin-secreting adipocytes. Early in life, patients develop a severe facsimile of metabolic syndrome, or with insulin resistance, hyperleptinemia, severe diabetes, cardiomyopathy, and fatty liver. These abnormalities can be dramatically ameliorated with leptin treatment.8 A second, much rarer form of leptin deficiency is caused by a mutation in the leptin gene.9 It is associated with severe obesity.
Leptin-resistant states are far more common. Although congenital leptin resistance attributable to a loss-of-function mutation of the leptin receptor gene Lepr-b is extraordinarily rare, it has been reported in man.10 Acquired leptin resistance, in contrast, may be one of Western mans most prevalent conditions. Virtually all obese individuals are resistant to actions of this versatile hormone.
| Failure of the Antilipotoxic Action of Hyperleptinemia |
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| Testing the Antilipotoxic Hypothesis |
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The transgenic mice with cardiac ACS overexpression develop echocardiographic evidence of severe left ventricular dysfunction, biochemical and electron microscopic evidence of ectopic lipid deposition, and histological evidence of myofiber disorganization and interstitial fibrosis. The mice die prematurely with a dilated cardiomyopathy.15 Because the mice are not obese, their leptin levels are not high (ie, they lack the antilipotoxic protection postulated for hyperleptinemia).
If the function of hyperleptinemia is, in fact, to protect against ectopic lipid deposition, induction of DIO level hyperleptinemia in these lean, normoleptinemic transgenic mice should prevent their lipotoxic cardiomyopathy. To simulate the hyperleptinemia of DIO, we treated 6-week-old ACS-transgenic mice with recombinant adenovirus containing the leptin cDNA (AdCMV-leptin).18 As a control, we administered adenovirus containing ß-galactosidase cDNA (AdCMV-ß-gal). During the first week after AdCMV-leptin treatment, plasma leptin levels ranged between 40 and 50 ng/mL, well above the 4 ng/mL levels reported previously in rats at the start of a high-fat diet.4 However, at 8 weeks after AdCMV-leptin treatment, leptin levels had declined to 11.1±0.45 ng/mL,18 well below the
25 ng/mL mean leptin level observed after 10 weeks of high-fat feeding.4 Leptin levels averaged 1.2±0.06 ng/mL in AdCMV-ß-galtreated ACS-transgenic control mice and in untreated wild-type controls. Using methods described previously, we compared the hearts of hyperleptinemic and normoleptinemic transgenic mice.18
Severely dilated cardiomyopathy was grossly apparent in normoleptinemic ACS-transgenic control mice (Figure 2A), confirming the original observation of Chiu et al.15 There was marked hypertrophy and dilatation of all chambers, with a doubling of heart weight and the heart weight/body weight ratio compared with the wild-type group. In striking contrast, the hearts of hyperleptinemic ACS-transgenic mice were normal in size, appearance, weight, and heart/body weight ratio.18 Transthoracic ECGs in AdCMV-ß-galtreated ACS-transgenic mice revealed markedly impaired systolic cardiac function with depressed fractional shortening on M-mode images and thickening of the anterior and posterior walls of the left ventricle (Figure 2B). The fractional shortening was normal in AdCMV-leptintreated ACS-transgenic mice (Figure 2C). In contrast, the hyperleptinemic ACS-transgenic group exhibited normal fractional shortening. Hematoxylin and eosin staining of hearts of control ACS-transgenic mice revealed myofiber disorganization, enlarged cardiomyocytes, and interstitial fibrosis (Figure 3Ab). Trichrome stains highlight the collagen deposits in the subendocardium and interstitium. Myocytes had large unilocular vacuoles, consistent with lipid droplets, resembling adipocytes (Figure 3Bb). AdCMV-leptintreated ACS-transgenic mice hearts were morphologically indistinguishable from the wild-type hearts.18
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The lipotoxicity of mice with ACS overexpression is caused in large part by increased import of long-chain fatty acids synthesized previously, rather than by increased lipogenesis or decreased oxidation in the cardiomyocytes themselves, as is the case in other forms of lipotoxicity. Seven days after treatment, the mean plasma levels of TG and free fatty acid in the hyperleptinemic mice were less than half of normoleptinemic controls, thereby reducing a source of imported fatty acids. But there was also evidence that hyperleptinemia had altered lipid metabolism within the heart in the direction of antilipogenesis. This took the form of increased phosphorylation of the key enzyme of lipid metabolism, AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK).19 This may have contributed to the reduction in cardiac TG content by inactivating acetyl CoA carboxylase, thereby reducing malonyl CoA, the first committed step in fatty acid synthesis and an inhibitor of fatty acid oxidation.20 In addition, the expression of the lipogenic enzymes fatty acid synthase and glycerol-phosphate acyl transferase mRNAs was significantly lower in the hearts of hyperleptinemic ACS-transgenic mice, consistent with the dramatic decrease in cardiac TG content.18 Finally, a major factor in preventing lipoapoptosis may have been the >2-fold increase in expression of the antiapoptotic factor Bcl2 in the hearts of hyperleptinemic ACS-transgenic mice, coupled with a 50% decrease in expression of proapoptotic Bax.21
| Clinical Perspectives |
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The findings cited here provide strong support for a protective role of leptin against lipotoxicity. By elevating plasma leptin levels of these normoleptinemic lean mice destined to develop lipotoxic cardiomyopathy, we completely prevented all manifestations of their severe disease, its abnormal echocardiographic patterns, its elevated cardiac TG content, and its cardiomyocyte hypertrophy, fat droplets, and interstitial fibrosis.
Can this information be translated to patient care at the present time? To the cardiologist, lipotoxic cardiomyopathy is a completely unfamiliar entity. However, it may explain certain cases currently being diagnosed as idiopathic cardiomyopathy and congestive failure.17 Lipotoxic cardiomyopathy is more easily treated than diagnosed. Striking improvement during stringent caloric restriction may at present be the only available diagnostic test as well as therapeutic strategy. Definitive noninvasive diagnosis requires sophisticated techniques of magnetic resonance spectroscopy16 that are not generally available. Trials of AMPK activators, which have been successful in rodent models,23 have not yet been studied in man.
| Discussion |
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| Acknowledgments |
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Received February 10, 2005; first decision February 28, 2005; accepted April 1, 2005.
| References |
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9. Farooqi IS, Matarese G, Lord GM, Keogh JM, Lawrence E, Agwu C, Sanna V, Jebb SA, Perna F, Fontana S, Lechler RI, DePaoli AM, ORahilly S. Beneficial effects of leptin on obesity, T cell hyporesponsiveness, and neuroendocrine/metabolic dysfunction of human congenital leptin deficiency. J Clin Invest. 2002; 110: 10931103.[CrossRef][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
10. Clement K, Vaisse C, Lahlou N, Cabrol S, Pelloux V, Cassuto D, Gourmelen M, Dina C, Chambaz J, Lacorte JM, Basdevant A, Bougneres P, Lebouc Y, Froguel P, Guy-Grand B. A mutation in the human leptin receptor gene causes obesity and pituitary dysfunction. Nature. 1998; 26: 398401.
11. Unger RH. How adipocytes integrate surplus caloric intake with caloric storage: Lessons from Morgan Spurlock and some French geese. Curr Opin Endo Diab. 2004; 11: 251257.[CrossRef]
12. Wang ZW, Pan WT, Lee Y, Kakuma T, Zhou YT, Unger RH. The role of leptin resistance in the lipid abnormalities of aging. FASEB J. 2001; 15: 108114.
13. Boden G, Shulman GI. Free fatty acids in obesity and type 2 diabetes: defining their role in the development of insulin resistance and beta-cell dysfunction. Eur J Clin Invest. 2002; 32 (suppl 3): 1423.
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16. Szczepaniak LS, Dobbins RL, Metzger GJ, Sartoni-DAmbrosia G, Arbique D, Vongpatanasin W, Unger R, Victor RG. Myocardial triglycerides and systolic function in humans: in vivo evaluation by localized proton spectroscopy and cardiac imaging. Magn Reson Med. 2003; 49: 417423.[CrossRef][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
17. Sharma S, Adrogue JV, Golfman L, Uray I, Lemm J, Youker K, Noon GP, Frazier OH, Taegtmeyer H. Intramyocardial lipid accumulation in the failing human heart resembles the lipotoxic rat heart. FASEB J. 2004; 18: 16921700.
18. Lee Y, Naseem RH, Duplomb L, Park B-H, Garry DJ, Richardson JA, Schaffer JE, Unger RH. Hyperleptinemia prevents lipotoxic cardiomyopathy in acyl CoA synthase transgenic mice. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2004; 101: 1362413629.
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21. Shimabukura M, Wang MY, Zhou YT, Newgard CB, Unger RH. Protection against lipoapoptosis of beta cells through leptin-dependent maintenance of BCl-2 expression. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1998; 95: 95589561.
22. Unger RH. Longevity, lipotoxicity, and leptin: The adipocyte defense against feasting and famine. Biochimie. 2005; 87: 5764.[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
23. Sreenan S, Sturgis J, Pugh W, Burant CF, Polonsky KS. Prevention of hyperglycemia in the Zucker diabetic fatty rat by treatment with metformin or troglitazone. Am J Physiol. 1996; 271: E742E747.
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