P610Akt-mediated cardioprotective effects of aldosterone in type 2 diabetic mice

Purpose: Studies have shown that aldosterone would have angiogenic effects, and therefore would be beneficial in the context of cardiovascular diseases. We thus investigated the potential involvement of aldosterone in triggering a cardiac angiogenic response in the context of type-2 diabetes, and the molecular pathways involved. Procedure: 3 week-old male mice, overexpressing aldosterone-synthase (AS), and their controls littermates (WT) were fed with a standard or high fat, high sucrose (HFHS) diet. After 6 months of diet, mice were sacrificed and cardiac samples were assayed by RT-PCR, immuno-blotting and -histology. Findings: HFHS-diet induced type-2 diabetes (D) in WT and AS mice. VEGFa mRNAs were decreased in WT-D (-43%, P