Klotho enhances diastolic function in aged hearts through Sirt1-mediated pathways.

ABSTRACT

Aging leads to a progressive decline in cardiac function, increasing the risk of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). This study elucidates the impact of α-Klotho, an anti-aging hormone, on cardiac diastolic dysfunction and explore its downstream mechanisms. Aged wild-type and heterozygous Klotho-deficient mice received daily injection of soluble α-Klotho (sKL) for 10 weeks, followed by a comprehensive assessment of heart function by echocardiography, intracardiac pressure catheter, exercise tolerance, and cardiac pathology. Our findings show that klotho deficiency accentuated cardiac hypertrophy, diastolic dysfunction, and exercise intolerance, while sKL treatment ameliorates these abnormalities and improves cardiac capillary densities. Downstream of klotho, we focused on the Sirtuin1 (Sirt1) signaling pathway to elucidate the potential underlying mechanism by which Klotho improves diastolic function. We found that decreased Klotho levels were linked with Sirt1 deficiency, whereas sKL treatment restored Sirt1 expression in aged hearts and mitigated the DNA damage response pathway activation. Through tandem mass tag proteomics and unbiased acetylomics analysis, we identified 220 significantly hyperacetylated lysine sites in critical cardiac proteins of aged hearts. We found that sKL supplementation attenuated age-dependent DNA damage and cardiac diastolic dysfunction. In contrast, Klotho deficiency significantly increased hyperacetylation of several crucial cardiac contractile proteins, potentially impairing ventricular relaxation and diastolic function, thus predisposing to HFpEF. These results suggest the potential benefit of sKL supplementation as a promising therapeutic strategy for combating HFpEF in aging.