Abstract 404: NLR Family, Pyrin Domain-containing 3 Knockout Rescues Cardiac Dysfunction Induced by High-fat Diet Feeding

Abstract

NLR family, pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3) is a pattern recognition receptor responsible for perpetuating an inflammatory response through production of pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1β and IL-18. It has been implicated in the sustained inflammatory response in obesity and multiple cardiovascular disease conditions. In order to investigate NLRP3 as a potential therapeutic target in metabolic syndrome, C57BL/6 wild-type (WT) and NLRP3 knockout (NLRP3-\-) mice were fed a normal diet (ND; 12% fat chow) or a high fat diet (HFD; 45% fat chow) for 5 months. At 5 months, echocardiography and glucose tolerance tests (GTTs) were performed. Cardiac function assessed by fractional shortening (FS) was significantly impaired by HFD feeding in the WT group (0.335 HFD vs. 0.456 ND; p<0.05) but not in the NLRP3-\- (0.449 HFD vs. 0.492 ND; p>0.05). FS was higher in NLRP3-\-HFD than in WT-HFD (p<0.05). Two-dimensional analysis shows the FS difference between NLRP3-\-HFD and WT-HFD was primarily explained by the difference in left ventricular end-systolic dimension (0.2716 cm WT vs. 0.1883 cm NLRP3-\-; p<0.05). Glucose tolerance measured by area under the curve (AUC) was significantly impaired by HFD feeding for both WT (23183 ND vs. 57298 HFD; p<0.001) and NLRP3-\- (23197 ND vs. 44626 HFD; p<0.001), but significantly better in the NLRP3-\-HFD than in WT-HFD (p<0.01). HFD feeding increased fasting blood glucose (FBG) for both WT (97.7 mg . dl -1 ND vs. 164.7 mg . dl -1 HFD; p<0.01) and NLRP3-\- (80.50 mg . dl -1 ND vs. 108.8 mg . dl -1 HFD; p<0.05), but significantly less in NLRP3-\- mice (NLRP3-\- vs. WT; p<0.05). For GTTs, body weight was significantly higher in the WT than NLRP3-\- fed HFD (47.93 g vs. 36.5 g; p<0.001). Body weight explained 92% of variation in glucose tolerance (p<0.0001) and 69% of variation in fasting blood glucose (p<0.0001). WT-HFD averaged 1.31X heavier than NLRP3-\-HFD, while the AUC for the IGTT was 1.28X larger for the WT-HFD than NLRP3-\-HFD. Body weights were not significantly different between genotypes at the time of echo. The results suggest that knockout of NLRP3 may be protective against HFD induced cardiovascular dysfunction. A protective effect on glucose tolerance is not strongly supported.