title: Metallothionein as a compensatory component prevents intermittent hypoxia-induced cardiomyopathy in mice.
abstract: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) causes chronic intermittent hypoxia (IH) to induce cardiovascular disease, which may be related to oxidative damage. Metallothionein (MT) has been extensively proved to be an endogenous and highly inducible antioxidant protein expressed in the heart. Therefore, we tested the hypotheses that oxidative stress plays a critical role in OSA induced cardiac damage and MT protects the heart from OSA-induced cardiomyopathy. To mimic hypoxia/reoxygenation events that occur in adult OSA patients, mice were exposed to IH for 3 days to 8 weeks. The IH paradigm consisted of alternating cycles of 20.9% O₂/8% O₂ F(I)O₂ (30 episodes per hour) with 20s at the nadir F(I)O₂ for 12 h a day during daylight. IH significantly increased the ratio of heart weight to tibia length at 4 weeks with a decrease in cardiac function from 4 to 8 weeks. Cardiac oxidative damage and fibrosis were observed after 4 and 8 weeks of IH exposures. Endogenous MT expression was up-regulated in response to 3-day IH, but significantly decreased at 4 and 8 weeks of IH. In support of MT as a major compensatory component, mice with cardiac overexpression of MT gene and mice with global MT gene deletion were completely resistant, and highly sensitive, respectively, to chronic IH induced cardiac effects. These findings suggest that chronic IH induces cardiomyopathy characterized by oxidative stress-mediated cardiac damage and the antioxidant MT protects the heart from such pathological and functional changes.
authors.affiliation: The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, 130021, China; KCHRI at the Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of Louisville, Louisville, 40202, USA.
authors.forename: Xia
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, 130021, China; KCHRI at the Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of Louisville, Louisville, 40202, USA.
authors.forename: Shanshan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, 130021, China. Electronic address: zhengyang@jlu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: KCHRI at the Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of Louisville, Louisville, 40202, USA; Chinese-American Research Institute for Diabetic Complications, Wenzhou Medical College School of Pharmacy, Wenzhou, 325035, China.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioinformatics and Biostatistics, School of Public Health and Information Sciences, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40202, USA.
authors.forename: Maiying
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kong
authors.affiliation: KCHRI at the Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of Louisville, Louisville, 40202, USA; Department of Pathology, Inner Mongolia Forestry General Hospital, Yakeshi, 022150, China.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Louisville, Louisville, 40202, USA.
authors.forename: Wenke
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: KCHRI at the Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of Louisville, Louisville, 40202, USA.
authors.forename: Paul N
authors.initials: PN
authors.lastname: Epstein
authors.affiliation: KCHRI at the Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of Louisville, Louisville, 40202, USA. Electronic address: j0cai002@louisville.edu.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: KCHRI at the Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of Louisville, Louisville, 40202, USA; Chinese-American Research Institute for Diabetic Complications, Wenzhou Medical College School of Pharmacy, Wenzhou, 325035, China; Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Louisville, Louisville, 40202, USA.
authors.forename: Lu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cai
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D009202:Cardiomyopathies / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D000860:Hypoxia / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D008668:Metallothionein / Q000378:metabolism*; D051379:Mice; D009206:Myocardium / Q000473:pathology; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D018384:Oxidative Stress / Q000502:physiology*; D020181:Sleep Apnea, Obstructive / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*
chemical_list: D008668:Metallothionein
keywords: Cardiomyopathy; Intermittent hypoxia; Metallothionein; Obstructive sleep apnea; Oxidative damage