Lipoxin A₄ improves cardiac remodeling and function in diabetes-associated cardiac dysfunction

Diabetic heart disease may eventually lead to heart failure, a leading cause of mortality in diabetic individuals. The lack of effective treatments for diabetes-induced heart failure may result from a failure to address the underlying pathological processes, including chronic, low-grade inflammation. Previous studies have reported that lipoxin A₄ (LXA₄), known to promote resolution of inflammation, attenuates diabetes-induced atherosclerosis, but its impact on diabetic hearts has not been sought. Thus, we aimed to determine whether LXA₄ therapeutic treatment attenuates diabetes-induced cardiac pathology.

Six-week-old male apolipoprotein E-deficient (ApoE^-/-) mice were followed for 16 weeks after injection of streptozotocin (STZ, 55 mg/kg/day, i.p. for 5 days) to induce type-1 diabetes (T1DM). Treatment with LXA₄ (5 μg/kg, i.p.) or vehicle (0.02% ethanol, i.p.) was administered twice weekly for the final 6 weeks. One week before endpoint, echocardiography was performed within a subset of mice from each group. At the end of the study, mice were euthanized with sodium pentobarbital (100 mg/kg i.p.) and hearts were collected for ex vivo analysis, including histological assessment, gene expression profiling by real-time PCR and protein level measurement by western blot.

As expected diabetic mice showed a significant elevation in plasma glycated hemoglobin (HbA_1c) and glucose levels, along with reduced body weight. Vehicle-treated diabetic mice exhibited increased cardiac inflammation, macrophage content, and an elevated ratio of M1-like to M2-like macrophage markers. In addition, myocardial fibrosis, cardiomyocytes apoptosis and hypertrophy (at the genetic level) were evident, with echocardiography revealing early signs of left ventricular (LV) diastolic dysfunction. Treatment with LXA₄ ameliorated diabetes-induced cardiac inflammation, pro-inflammatory macrophage polarization and cardiac remodeling (especially myocardial fibrosis and cardiomyocytes apoptosis), with ultimate improvement in cardiac function. Of note, this improvement was independent of glucose control.

These findings demonstrated that LXA₄ treatment attenuated the extent of cardiac inflammation in diabetic hearts, resulting in limited cardiac remodeling and improved LV diastolic function. This supports further exploration of LXA₄-based therapy for the management of diabetic heart disease. The recent development of stable LXA₄ mimetics holds potential as a novel strategy to treat cardiac dysfunction in diabetes, paving the way for innovative and more effective therapeutic strategies.