Diet-induced obese mice are resistant to improvements in cardiac function resulting from short-term adropin treatment

Previous studies have shown that treatment with recombinant adropin, a circulating peptide secreted by the liver and brain, restores glucose utilization in the hearts of diet-induced obese mice. This restoration of fuel substrate flexibility, which is lost in obese and diabetic animals, has the potential to improve contractile function in the diabetic heart. Using an ex vivo approach, we examined whether short-term adropin treatment could enhance cardiac function in a mouse model of diet-induced obesity. Our study showed that acute adropin treatment reduces inhibitory phosphorylation of pyruvate dehydrogenase in primary neonatal cardiomyocytes, and leads to moderate improvements in ex vivo cardiac function in mice fed a low fat diet. Conversely, short-term exposure to adropin led to a small decrease in cardiac function in mice fed a long-term high fat diet. Insulin treatment did not significantly alter cardiac function in adropin treated hearts from either low or high fat diet mice, however acute adropin treatment did moderately restore downstream insulin signaling in high fat diet fed mice. Overall, these data suggest that in an ex vivo setting, acute adropin treatment alone is not sufficient to promote improved cardiac function in obese animals.