Anemia and the potential role of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents in heart failure

Can Iron Play a Crucial Role in Maintaining Cardiovascular Health in the 21st Century?

In the 21st century the heart is facing more and more challenges so it should be brave and iron to meet these challenges. We are living in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic, population aging, prevalent obesity, diabetes and autoimmune diseases, environmental pollution, mass migrations and new potential pandemic threats. In our article we showed sophisticated and complex regulations of iron metabolism. We discussed the impact of iron metabolism on heart diseases, treatment of heart failure, diabetes and obesity. We faced the problems of constant stress, climate change, environmental pollution, migrations and epidemics and showed that iron is really essential for heart metabolism in the 21st century.

Proteomic profiling during atherosclerosis progression using SELDI-TOF-MS: effect of darbepoetin treatment

Narrowing of the arteries due to atherosclerosis may lead to congestive heart failure (CHF). It is advantageous to perform atherosclerosis studies in apolipoprotein E-deficient (Apo E(-/-)) mice models, which develop atherosclerosis very rapidly in comparison to humans. Darbepoetin is a synthetic erythropoietin analogue and stimulates erythropoiesis. The aim of this study was to explore the effect of 16 weeks of darbepoetin treatment on serum protein profiles in Apo E(-/-) mice during atherosclerosis progression. Serum proteomic analyses were performed using surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF-MS) in the darbepoetin-treated and non-treated (control) Apo E(-/-) mice groups. The protein profiles obtained using three different chips, CM-10 (weak cation exchange), H50 (reversed-phase) and IMAC-30 (immobilized metal affinity capture), were statistically analyzed using the ProteinChip data manager 3.0 program. At the end of 16 weeks of darbepoetin treatment, there was no significant difference in the size and degree of atherosclerotic lesions between the darbepoetin and control mice groups. In contrast, 145 protein/peptide-clustering peaks, >5 kDa, had statistically significant differences in their peak intensities between the darbepoetin and control mice groups (p<0.05). That the proteomic profiles of darbepoetin-treated Apo E(-/-) mice were found to differ from those of the control group indicates a potential beneficial role of darbepoetin in atherosclerosis. Our study contributes to understanding the effects of darbepoetin on protein/peptide expressions during atherosclerosis development.