Receptor

Obesity

Cardiology

Endocrinology

Angiology

Internal medicine

Medicine

Cardiovascular Diabetology

The leading cause of death among the obese population is heart failure and stroke prompted by structural and functional changes in the heart. The molecular mechanisms that underlie obesity-related cardiac remodeling are complex, and include hemodynamic and metabolic alterations that ultimately affect the functionality of the myocardium. G protein-coupled receptor kinase 2 (GRK2) is an ubiquitous kinase able to desensitize the active form of several G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR) and is known to play an important role in cardiac GPCR modulation. GRK2 has also been recently identified as a negative modulator of insulin signaling and systemic insulin resistance.We investigated the effects elicited by GRK2 downregulation in obesity-related cardiac remodeling. For this aim, we used 9 month-old wild type (WT) and GRK2+/- mice, which display circa 50% lower levels of this kinase, fed with either a standard or a high fat diet (HFD) for 30 weeks. In these mice we studied different parameters related to cardiac gro...

Obesity-induced cardiac lipid accumulation in adult mice is modulated by G protein-coupled receptor kinase 2 levels