Relaxin reverses inflammatory and immune signals in aged hearts.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:'Healthy' aging drives structural and functional changes in the heart including maladaptive electrical remodeling, fibrosis and inflammation, which lower the threshold for cardiovascular diseases such as heart failure (HF) and atrial fibrillation (AF). Despite mixed results in recent clinical trials, Relaxin-therapy for 2-days could reduce mortality by 37% at 180-days post-treatment, in patients with acute decompensated HF. Relaxin's short life-span (hours) but long-lasting protective actions led us to test the hypothesis that relaxin acts at a genomic level to reverse maladaptive remodeling in aging and HF. METHODS AND RESULTS:Young (9-month) and aged (24-month), male and female F-344/Brown Norway rats were treated with relaxin (0.4 mg/kg/day) for 2-weeks delivered by subcutane

SUBMITTER: Martin B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5773192 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature