Insulin improves cardiac myocytes contractile function recovery in simulated ischemia-reperfusion： Key role of Akt

There are abundant insulin receptors on the membrane of myocytes, which renders cardiomyocytes typical target cells of insulin. Accumulating evidence has indicated that abnormal insulin level is an important predisposing factor in diabetes-related cardiovascular disorders and may contribute to the development of cardiovascular diseases, such as coronary heart diseaseand heart failure. It has been shown that insulin couldreduce infarct size in experimental animals subjected to myocardial ischem…

Insulin improves cardiac myocytes contractile function recovery in simulated ischemia-reperfusion: Key role of Akt

The present study examined cardiac myocyte contractile and Ca2+ transient responses to insulin during simulated ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) and furtherinvestigated the role of protein kinase B (Akt) in the insulin- induced inotropic effect. Ventricular myocytes were enzymatically isolated from adult Sprague-Dawley rats and perfused with Tyrode solution while electrically field-stimulated. Simulated I/R was induced by perfusing the cells with chemical anoxic solution including sodium cyanide-sodium lactate for 15 min followed by reperfusion with normal oxygenated Tyrode solution with or without insulin. It is found that insulin only at concentration as high as 10 IU/L could increase cell shortening (16±5%, P < 0.05) in normal myocytes, whereas it concentration-dependently (0.01-10 IU/L) increased the contraction,the velocity of shortening/releng- theningand Ca2+ transient in I/R myocytes. In addition, insulin treatment (1 IU/L) increased Akt phosphorylation of I/R cardiomyocytes by 2.4-fold compared with that of the control (P < 0.01). Most importantly, pretreatment with LY 294002, a specific inhibitor of phosphatidylinositol 3′-kinase (PI3-kinase), significantly inhibited both Akt phosphorylation and the positive inotropic response to insulin in the I/R cardiomyocytes. These results suggest that insulin exerts direct positive inotropic effect by increasing Ca2+ transient of cardiomyocytes, which is enhanced in the pathological condition of I/R. Akt activation plays an important role in the insulin-induced improvement of myocyte contractile function following I/R.