Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P10415 (Bcl-2)
 33,771 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Chronic heart failure (CHF) is the major cause of death in the developed countries. Calorie restriction is known to improve the recovery in these patients; however, the exact mechanism behind this protective effect is unknown. Here we demonstrate the activation of cell survival PI3kinase/Akt and VEGF pathway as the mechanism behind the protection induced by intermittent fasting in a rat model of established chronic myocardial ischemia (MI). Chronic MI was induced in rats by occlusion of the left coronary artery. Two weeks later, the rats were randomly assigned to a normal feeding group (MI-NF) and an alternate-day feeding group (MI-IF). After 6 weeks of observation, we evaluated the effect of intermittent fasting on cellular and ventricular remodeling and long-term survival after CHF. Compared with the normally fed group, intermittent fasting markedly improved the survival of rats with CHF (88.5% versus 23% survival, P<0.05). The heart weight body weight ratio was significantly less in the MI-IF group compared to the MI-NF group (3.4+/-0.17 versus 3.9+/-0.18, P<0.05). Isolated heart perfusion studies exhibited well preserved cardiac functions in the MI-IF group compared to the MI-NF group (P<0.05). Molecular studies revealed the upregulation of angiogenic factors such asHIF-1-alpha (3010+/-350% versus 650+/-151%), BDNF (523+/-32% versus 110+/-12%), and VEGF (450+/-21% versus 170+/-30%) in the fasted hearts. Immunohistochemical studies confirmed increased capillary density (P<0.001) in the border area of the ischemic myocardium and synthesis VEGF by cardiomyocytes. Moreover fasting also upregulated the expression of other anti-apoptotic factors such as Akt and Bcl-2 and reduced the TUNEL positive apoptotic nuclei in the border zone. Chronic intermittent fasting markedly improves the long-term survival after CHF by activation through its pro-angiogenic, anti-apoptotic and anti-remodeling effects.
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PMID:Chronic intermittent fasting improves the survival following large myocardial ischemia by activation of BDNF/VEGF/PI3K signaling pathway. 1905 63