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Letter

Nature Medicine 10, 1245 - 1250 (2004)
Published online: 10 October 2004 | doi:10.1038/nm1116

Cardiomyocyte-restricted peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-delta deletion perturbs myocardial fatty acid oxidation and leads to cardiomyopathy

Lihong Cheng1, Guoliang Ding1, Qianhong Qin1, Yao Huang1, William Lewis2, Nu He3, Ronald M Evans4, Michael D Schneider5, Florence A Brako1, Yan Xiao1, Yuqing E Chen1 & Qinglin Yang1

Fatty acid oxidation (FAO) is a primary energy source for meeting the heart's energy requirements1, 2, 3. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-delta (PPAR-delta) may have important roles in FAO4, 5, 6, 7, 8. But it remains unclear whether PPAR-delta is required for maintaining basal myocardial FAO. We show that cre-loxP-mediated cardiomyocyte-restricted deletion of PPAR-delta in mice downregulates constitutive expression of key FAO genes and decreases basal myocardial FAO. These mice have cardiac dysfunction, progressive myocardial lipid accumulation, cardiac hypertrophy and congestive heart failure with reduced survival. Thus, chronic myocardial PPAR-delta deficiency leads to lipotoxic cardiomyopathy. Together, our data show that PPAR-delta is a crucial determinant of constitutive myocardial FAO and is necessary to maintain energy balance and normal cardiac function. We suggest that PPAR-delta is a potential therapeutic target in treating lipotoxic cardiomyopathy and other heart diseases.