Berberine improves dietary-induced cardiac remodeling by upregulating Kruppel-like factor 4-dependent mitochondrial function.

Berberine improves dietary-induced cardiac remodeling by upregulating Kruppel-like factor 4-dependent mitochondrial function. Biol Chem. 2021 Jan 30;: Authors: Ding L, Li S, Wang F, Xu J, Li S, Wang B, Kou J, Wang Y, Cao W Abstract Multiple studies have showed that berberine protects against heart diseases, including obesityassociated cardiomyopathy. However, it is not fully disclosed the potential molecular mechanisms of berberine on controlling cardiac remodelling. Kruppel-like factor (KLF) 4, identified as a critical transcriptional factor, participates in multiple cardiac injuries. The present study was to explore whether KLF4 determined the cardioprotective benefits of berberine in dietary-induced obese mice. High fat diet-induced obese mice were treated with berberine with or without lentivirus encoding Klf4 siRNA, and cardiac parameters were analysed by multiple biological approaches. In dietary-induced obese mouse model, administration of berberine obviously increased cardiac level of KLF4, which closely correlated with improvement of cardiac functional parameters. Co-treatment of lentivirus encoding Klf4 siRNA abolished cardioprotective benefits of berberine, including induction of cardiac hypertrophy, fibrosis, functional disorders, inflammatory response and oxidative stress. Mechanistically, we found berberine improved cardiac mitochondrial biogenesis and activities, whereas silencing Klf4 decreased berberine-upregulated m...
Source: Biological Chemistry - Category: Chemistry Tags: Biol Chem Source Type: research