Addressing the impact of obesity, diet, and diabetes in the development of cardiomyopathy in the female ZDF rat
Principal Investigator: Michal Cagalinec
Duration: 1/2026 – 12/2029
Coordinating Organization: Institute of Experimental Endocrinology BRC SAS
Annotation
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of morbidity worldwide. Accumulating evidence indicates that although pre-menopausal women have a lower risk of CVDs, compared to age-matched men, this advantage is lost in diabetic premenopausal women where the leading case of the CVD is the development of diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM). DCM relates to heart remodeling and functional changes. Few human, as well as rodent studies, including the Zucker Diabetic Fatty (ZDF) rat model, have assessed molecular and cellular mechanisms regarding gender differences of DCM. For male ZDF rats diastolic dysfunction, calcium signaling disturbance, and myocyte hypertrophy has been reported. Therefore, we aim to characterize intracellular calcium dynamics and ultrastructure of cardiomyocytes in female ZDF rats and compare them between the lean and obese models with or without developed DCM to reveal the mechanisms behind diet-, obesity-, and diabetes-induced pathology.
Keywords
cardiomyopathy, diabetes, obesity, high-fat diet, myocyte, excitation-contraction coupling, calcium transients, electron microscopy
Objectives
The aim of this project is to characterize cardiomyocytes in female ZDF rats—specifically their intracellular
calcium dynamics and ultrastructure—and compare lean (fa/+) vs. obese (fa/fa) phenotypes, with or without diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM) induced by high-fat diet (H
Publications