title: Myocardial relaxin counteracts hypertrophy in hypertensive rats.
abstract: Current findings in male relaxin knockout mice indicate antifibrotic and positive lusitropic actions of relaxin on the myocardium. We investigated in 12-month-old male spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and age-matched male Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKY) whether RLX shows antihypertrophic actions as well. SHR showed left heart hypertrophy and a selective elevation of left atrial and ventricular relaxin peptide which inversely correlated with the degree of hypertrophy. In adult rat cardiomyocytes, relaxin blunted phenylephrine-induced hypertrophy by inhibiting activated ERK-1/2 kinases. In conclusion, endogenous myocardial relaxin, upregulated in left heart hypertrophy, exerts antihypertrophic effects by inhibition of activated ERK-1/2 kinases.
authors.affiliation: Charité Berlin, Campus Mitte, Medizinische Klinik m. S. Kardiologie, Angiologie und Pulmologie, Schumannstrasse 20/21, 10117 Berlin, Germany. thomas.dschietzig@t-online.de
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dschietzig
authors.forename: Cornelia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bartsch
authors.forename: Till
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kinkel
authors.forename: Gert
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Baumann
authors.forename: Karl
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Stangl
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006973:Hypertension / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D006984:Hypertrophy / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D009206:Myocardium / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D051381:Rats; D011918:Rats, Inbred SHR; D011921:Rats, Inbred WKY; D012065:Relaxin / Q000172:deficiency / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D012065:Relaxin