24 h nesfatin-1 treatment promotes apoptosis in cardiomyocytes.

The appetite-regulating neuropeptide nesfatin-1 can influence cardiovascular function: in vivo analyses have shown that in rats it regulates blood pressure [1] and heart rate [2], and is cardioprotective against lesions from ischemia/reperfusion (I/ R) [3]. It has been suggested that it may also regulate cell viability, but the evidence is contradictory [4–6]. We previously found that a short nesfatin-1 treatment regulates cardiomyocyte metabolism without affecting cell viability [7]. We have now investigated the effect of longer (24 h) nesfatin1 treatment on the survival of culturedmurine cardiomyocytes.