ABSTRACT:
Apelin is an endogenous ligand for the angiotensin-like 1 receptor (APJ) and has beneficial effects against hypertension and myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury. Little is known about the role of apelin in the homing of vascular progenitor cells (PCs) and cardiac remodeling post-myocardial infarction (MI). The present study investigates whether apelin affects PCs homing to the infarcted myocardium thereby mediating cardiac remodeling post-MI. Mice were infarcted by coronary artery ligation and apelin-13 (1 mg/kg.d) was injected for three days prior to MI and for either 24 hours or 14 days post MI. Homing of vascular progenitor cell (CD133
+
/c-kit
+
/Sca1
+
, CD133
+
/SDF-1α
+
and CD133
+
/CXCR4
+
) into the ischemic area were examined at 24 hours and 14 days post-MI. Myocardial Akt, eNOS, VEGF, Jagged1, Notch3, SDF-1α and CXCR4 expression were assessed. Functional analyses were performed at day 14 after MI. Mice receiving apelin-13 treatment demonstrated upregulation of SDF-1α/CXCR4 expression and dramatically increased the number of CD133
+
/c-kit
+
/Sca1
+
, CD133
+
/SDF-1α
+
and c-kit
+
/CXCR4
+
cells in the infarcted hearts. Apelin-13 also significantly increased Akt and eNOS phosphorylation and upregulated VEGF, Jagged1, Notch3 expression in the ischemic hearts. This was accompanied by a significant reduction of myocardial apoptosis. Further, treatment with apelin-13 promoted myocardial angiogenesis, attenuated cardiac fibrosis and hypertrophy together with a significant improvement of cardiac function at 14 days post-MI mice. Apelin-13 increases angiogenesis and improves cardiac remodeling by a mechanism involving upregulation of SDF-1α/CXCR4 and homing of vascular progenitor cells.
Critical role of CNS effects of aldosterone in cardiac remodeling post-myocardial infarction in rats
