University Heart Center, Department of Cardiology, University Hospital of Zurich, 8091 Zurich, Switzerland.
Regional Hospital Neustadt, 2700 Wiener Neustadt, Austria.
Int J Mol Sci. 2023 Apr 6;24(7):6838. doi: 10.3390/ijms24076838.
Epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) is an endocrine and paracrine organ constituted by a layer of adipose tissue directly located between the myocardium and visceral pericardium. Under physiological conditions, EAT exerts protective effects of brown-like fat characteristics, metabolizing excess fatty acids, and secreting anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic cytokines. In certain pathological conditions, EAT acquires a proatherogenic transcriptional profile resulting in increased synthesis of biologically active adipocytokines with proinflammatory properties, promoting oxidative stress, and finally causing endothelial damage. The role of EAT in heart failure (HF) has been mainly limited to HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and related to the HFpEF obese phenotype. In HFpEF, EAT seems to acquire a proinflammatory profile and higher EAT values have been related to worse outcomes. Less data are available about the role of EAT in HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). Conversely, in HFrEF, EAT seems to play a nutritive role and lower values may correspond to the expression of a catabolic, adverse phenotype. As of now, there is evidence that the beneficial systemic cardiovascular effects of sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 receptors-inhibitors (SGLT2-i) might be partially mediated by inducing favorable modifications on EAT. As such, EAT may represent a promising target organ for the development of new drugs to improve cardiovascular prognosis. Thus, an approach based on detailed phenotyping of cardiac structural alterations and distinctive biomolecular pathways may change the current scenario, leading towards a precision medicine model with specific therapeutic targets considering different individual profiles. The aim of this review is to summarize the current knowledge about the biomolecular pathway of EAT in HF across the whole spectrum of ejection fraction, and to describe the potential of EAT as a therapeutic target in HF.
心外膜脂肪组织 (EAT) 是一种内分泌和旁分泌器官,由一层直接位于心肌和内脏心包之间的脂肪组织构成。在生理条件下,EAT 发挥类似于棕色脂肪的保护作用,代谢多余的脂肪酸,并分泌抗炎和抗纤维化细胞因子。在某些病理条件下,EAT 获得促动脉粥样硬化的转录谱,导致具有促炎特性的生物活性脂肪细胞因子的合成增加,促进氧化应激,最终导致内皮损伤。EAT 在心力衰竭 (HF) 中的作用主要限于射血分数保留的心力衰竭 (HFpEF) ,并与 HFpEF 肥胖表型相关。在 HFpEF 中,EAT 似乎获得了促炎表型,较高的 EAT 值与更差的预后相关。关于 EAT 在射血分数降低的心力衰竭 (HFrEF) 中的作用的数据较少。相反,在 HFrEF 中,EAT 似乎发挥营养作用,较低的值可能对应于表达一种分解代谢的不良表型。到目前为止,有证据表明钠-葡萄糖共转运蛋白 2 抑制剂 (SGLT2-i) 的有益的全身性心血管作用可能部分通过诱导 EAT 的有利改变来介导。因此,EAT 可能是开发改善心血管预后的新药的有前途的靶器官。因此,基于对心脏结构改变和独特的生物分子途径的详细表型分析的方法可能会改变当前的情况,朝着具有特定治疗靶点的精准医学模型发展,考虑到不同的个体特征。本综述的目的是总结 EAT 在整个射血分数范围内 HF 中的生物分子途径的现有知识,并描述 EAT 作为 HF 治疗靶点的潜力。