Subcutaneous ngFSTL1 improves cardiac function and decreases infarct size in diabetic swine, suggesting potential for human application.
Obesity, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome increase the incidence and complicate the management of myocardial infarction (MI). Current treatments do not adequately blunt the progression to chronic ischemic heart disease and heart failure, making these diseases the largest cause of mortality worldwide. Insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome were induced in obese Ossabaw swine prior to ischemia/reperfusion injury-induced MI. Subcutaneous administration of the adipomyokine Follistatin-like-1 (recombinant non-glycosylated human FSTL1, ngFSTL1) for two weeks, beginning one month following myocardial infarction, decreased infarct necrosis, increased blood flow, and increased cardiomyocyte proliferation within the infarct region, leading to improved systolic and diastolic function. ngFSTL-1 also enhanced coronary and peripheral vascular function by increasing BKCa channel-dependent vasodilatory capacity. We conclude that subcutaneous ngFSTL1 ameliorated clinically relevant parameters of cardiac and vascular dysfunction in a preclinical swine model of diabetic MI, and suggest FSTL1 treatment may be broadly efficacious in humans.
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Ruiz‐Lozano et al. (2025) studied this question.
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