Oxidative
and hypertrophic stresses contribute to the pathogenesis of heart failure.
Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) is a peptide hormone with a complex
post-transcriptional regulation, generating distinct isoforms. Locally
acting IGF-1 isoform (mIGF-1) helps the heart to recover from toxic injury
and from infarct. In the murine heart, moderate overexpression of the NAD+-dependent
deacetylase SirT1 was reported to mitigate oxidative stress. SirT1 is known
to promote lifespan extension and to protect from metabolic challenges.
Circulating IGF-1 and SirT1 play antagonizing biological roles and share
molecular targets in the heart, in turn affecting cardiomyocyte physiology.
However, how different IGF-1 isoforms may impact SirT1 and affect
cardiomyocyte function is unknown. Here we show that locally acting mIGF-1
increases SirT1 expression/activity, whereas circulating IGF-1 isoform does
not affect it, in cultured HL-1 and neonatal cardiomyocytes. mIGF-1-induced
SirT1 activity exerts protection against angiotensin II (Ang II)-triggered
hypertrophy and against paraquat (PQ) and Ang II-induced oxidative stress.
Conversely, circulating IGF-1 triggered itself oxidative stress and
cardiomyocyte hypertrophy. Interestingly, potent cardio-protective genes
(adiponectin, UCP-1 and MT-2) were increased specifically in
mIGF-1-overexpressing cardiomyocytes, in a SirT1-dependent fashion. Thus,
mIGF-1 protects cardiomyocytes from oxidative and hypertrophic stresses via
SirT1 activity, and may represent a promising cardiac therapeutic