Abstract
Background:
Chronic hypoxia causes apoptosis of cardiac myocytes, however, energy production by anaerobic glycolysis protects myocardium against hypoxia injuries. Aldolase A is a well-characterised key enzyme of the glycolysis pathway. Ghrelin, a 28-amino-acid peptide, synthesizes in the stomach and has protective roles in cardiovascular systems and also affects metabolic pathways.Objectives:
Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of ghrelin on aldolase A gene expression after chronic hypoxia in the rat hearts.Materials and Methods:
Twenty four adult male wistar rats were randomly divided into three groups. Hypoxic rats with saline or ghrelin treatment were placed in a normobaric hypoxic chamber (O2 11 %), for two weeks. Controls remained in room air. Aldolase A gene expression was measured by Real-Time RT-PCR.Results:
the transcriptiom rate of Aldolase A in hypoxic animals did not change significantly compared to negative control ones. During chronic hypoxia, ghrelin treatment increased the amount of heart Aldolase A gene expression compared to negative controls (P = 0.029). Hypoxic animals that were treated with ghrelin were significantly more polycythemic than the controls and even hypoxic with saline treated rats (P < 0.001).Conclusions:
It seems that ghrelin interferes in the cardiac metabolism through up-regulation of glycolytic enzymes. In other words, it may protect heart from possible hypoxia induced damages.Keywords
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© 2012, Author(s). This open-access article is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which allows for unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited.