TUESDAY, June 24 (HealthDay News) -- The hormone aldosterone can lead to cardiac hypertrophy in mice via the cytokine cardiotrophin-1 (CT-1), according to research published online June 19 in Endocrinology.
Natalia Lopez-Andres, and colleagues from the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain, investigated whether CT-1, a cytokine that can cause cardiac hypertrophy, mediated the cardiac hypertrophy induced by aldosterone.
The researchers found that aldosterone increased the expression of CT-1 in adult mouse HL-1 cardiomyocytes in a dose-dependent manner, which could be reversed by inhibitors of transcription, mineralocorticoid and glucocorticoid receptors, and p38 MAPK. Blocking CT-1 or its receptor with antibodies significantly reduced the increase in cell size and the increased expression of two genes induced by aldosterone. In vivo, aldosterone increased myocardial CT-1 expression in wild-type mice but not in mice lacking CT-1.
"In summary, aldosterone induces CT-1 expression in adult HL-1 cardiomyocytes via genomic and non-genomic mechanisms," Lopez-Andres and colleagues conclude. "CT-1 upregulation could have relevance in the direct hypertrophic effects of aldosterone in cardiomyocytes."