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The regulation and mechanism of apolipoprotein A5 on myocardial lipid deposition

YANG Xiao-Jie^1,2, LI Jiang¹, CHEN Jing-Yuan¹, ZHU Teng-Teng¹, CHEN Yu-Si¹, QIU Hai-Hua¹, CHEN Wen-Jie¹, LUO Xiao-Qin¹, LUO Jun^1,*

¹Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha 410011, China；²Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Zhengzhou Central Hospital Affiliated to Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450007, China

Abstract

The current study aimed to clarify the roles of apolipoprotein A5 (ApoA5) and milk fat globule-epidermal growth factor 8 (Mfge8) in regulating myocardial lipid deposition and the regulatory relationship between them. The serum levels of ApoA5 and Mfge8 in obese and healthy people were compared, and the obesity mouse model induced by the high-fat diet (HFD) was established. In addition, primary cardiomyocytes were purified and identified from the hearts of suckling mice. The 0.8 mmol/L sodium palmitate treatment was used to establish the lipid deposition cardiomyocyte model in vitro. ApoA5-overexpressing adenovirus was used to observe its effects on cardiac function and lipids. The expressions of the fatty acid uptake-related molecules and Mfge8 on transcription or translation levels were detected. Co-immunoprecipitation was used to verify the interaction between ApoA5 and Mfge8 proteins. Immunofluorescence was used to observe the co-localization of Mfge8 protein with ApoA5 or lysosome-associated membrane protein 2 (LAMP2). Recombinant rMfge8 was added to cardiomyocytes to investigate the regulatory mechanism of ApoA5 on Mfge8. The results showed that participants in the simple obesity group had a significant decrease in serum ApoA5 levels (P < 0.05) and a significant increase in Mfge8 levels (P < 0.05) in comparison with the healthy control group. The adenovirus treatment successfully overexpressed ApoA5 in HFD-fed obese mice and palmitic acid-induced lipid deposition cardiomyocytes, respectively. ApoA5 reduced the weight of HFD-fed obese mice (P < 0.05), shortened left ventricular isovolumic relaxation time (IVRT), increased left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), and significantly reduced plasma levels of triglycerides (TG) and cholesterol (CHOL) (P < 0.05). In myocardial tissue and cardiomyocytes, the overexpression of ApoA5 significantly reduced the deposition of TG (P < 0.05), transcription of fatty acid translocase (FAT/CD36) (P < 0.05), fatty acid-binding protein (FABP) (P < 0.05), and fatty acid transport protein (FATP) (P < 0.05), and protein expression of Mfge8 (P < 0.05), while the transcription levels of Mfge8 were not significantly altered (P > 0.05). In vitro, the Mfge8 protein was captured using ApoA5 as bait protein, indicating a direct interaction between them. Overexpression of ApoA5 led to an increase in co-localization of Mfge8 with ApoA5 or LAMP2 in cardiomyocytes under lipid deposition status. On this basis, exogenous added recombinant rMfge8 counteracted the improvement of lipid deposition in cardiomyocytes by ApoA5. The above results indicate that the overexpression of ApoA5 can reduce fatty acid uptake in myocardial cells under lipid deposition status by regulating the content and cellular localization of Mfge8 protein, thereby significantly reducing myocardial lipid deposition and improving cardiac diastolic and systolic function.

Key words: apolipoprotein A5; cardiomyocyte lipid deposition; milk fat globule-epidermal growth factor 8

Received: 　　Accepted:

Corresponding author: 罗俊　　E-mail:

DOI: 10.13294/j.aps.2025.0009

Citing This Article：

YANG Xiao-Jie, LI Jiang, CHEN Jing-Yuan, ZHU Teng-Teng, CHEN Yu-Si, QIU Hai-Hua, CHEN Wen-Jie, LUO Xiao-Qin, LUO Jun. The regulation and mechanism of apolipoprotein A5 on myocardial lipid deposition. Acta Physiol Sin 2025; 77 (1): 35-46 (in Chinese with English abstract).