The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma) is highly expressed in human heart ventricles

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma) is a ligand activated transcription factor which regulates gene expression in various tissues. PPARgamma was primarily found to be associated with lipid and glucose metabolism. Recent experimental studies provided evidence that PPARgamma is also expressed in the arterial wall and in cardiomyocytes and described PPARgamma as a transducer of antihypertropic signaling in the heart. This comparative study sought to investigate whether PPARgamma is differently expressed in the aorta, coronary arteries and left ventricle specimens derived from healthy heart donors (n = 5). By using quantitative PCR, we found that PPARgamma is expressed in all of the human specimens with the by far highest expression (5.01-fold) in the left ventricles compared to aorta, whereas no significant difference was detected between coronary arteries (0.93-fold) vs. aorta. Furthermore, especially great interindividual variations were observed in PPARgamma expression in aorta, and to a lesser extent, in coronary arteries and left ventricle specimens. In conclusion, our data argue for the prominent role of PPARgamma in the human heart, particularly in the normal left ventricle.