Abstract 18563: Sigmar1 Protects the Heart Against Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury

Introduction: Accumulative evidence indicates that increased expression and presumably activity of molecular chaperones are protective against cardiac hypertrophic remodling and ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury-induced heart failure. Sigma-1 receptor (Sigmar1) is a highly expressed molecular chaperone protein in the heart. However, Sigmar1’s molecular functions and involvement in disease processes in the heart remains obscure. Hypothesis: We investigated the functional role of Sigmar1 in cardiac I/R injury induced pathological remodeling and heart failure in mouse heart. Methods and Results: Sigmar1 is a chaperone protein expressing in normal heart and temporal changes following I/R-injury showed increased level of Sigmar1 protein expression. To define the structural, functional and physiological significance of Sigmar1 in cardiac stress response, we subjected the cardiac specific Sigmar1 transgenic mice and Sigmar1 knockout mice to I/R-injury. We generated the transgenic mice with cardiac-specific overe...