Aims Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is a multifactorial disease that constitutes several distinct phenotypes, including a common cardiometabolic phenotype with obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Treatment options for HFpEF are limited, and development of novel therapeutics is hindered by the paucity of suitable preclinical HFpEF models that recapitulate the complexity of human HFpEF. Metabolic drugs, like Glucagon Like Peptide Receptor Agonist (GLP-1RA) and Sodium Glucose Transporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2i), have emerged as promising drugs to restore metabolic perturbations and may have value in the treatment of the cardiometabolic HFpEF phenotype. We aimed to develop a multifactorial HFpEF mouse model that closely resembles the cardiometabolic HFpEF phenotype, and evaluated the GLP-1 RA liraglutide and a SGLT2i dapagliflozin. Methods & Results Aged (18-22 months old) female C57BL/6J mice were fed a standardized chow (CTRL) or high fat diet (HFD) for 12 weeks. After 8 weeks HFD, Angiotensin-II (ANGII), was administered for 4 weeks via osmotic mini-pumps. HFD+ANGII resulted in a cardiometabolic HFpEF phenotype, including obesity, impaired glucose handling and metabolic dysregulation with inflammation. The multiple-hit resulted in typical clinical HFpEF features, including cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis with preserved fractional shortening but with impaired myocardial deformation, atrial enlargement lung congestion, and elevated blood pressures. Treatment with liraglutide attenuated the cardiometabolic dysregulation and improved cardiac function, with reduced cardiac hypertrophy, less myocardial fibrosis, and attenuation of atrial weight, natriuretic peptide levels, and lung congestion. Dapagliflozin treatment improved glucose handling, but had mild effects on the HFpEF phenotype. Conclusions We developed a mouse model that recapitulates the human HFpEF disease, providing a novel opportunity to study disease pathogenesis and development of enhanced therapeutic approaches. We furthermore show that attenuation of cardiometabolic dysregulation may represent a novel therapeutic target for treatment of HFpEF. Translational Perspective The failure of many treatment modalities for HFpEF may –at least in part– be explained by the lack of an adequate animal model. The diverse etiology of HFpEF is still largely neglected in pre-clinical research. In this study we developed a murine model that includes advanced age, female sex, in concert with co-morbidities: elevated blood pressure, obesity and T2DM. We demonstrate that this model recapitulates the human cardiometabolic HFpEF phenotype. We showed that contemporary glucose lowering drugs, liraglutide and dapagliflozin, which are both under study for HFpEF, have positive results. Our model may be useful to evaluate novel cardiometabolic, anti-fibrotic, and anti-inflammatory treatments for HFpEF.

Heart failure (HF) with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is a multifactorial disease accounting for a large and increasing proportion of all clinical HF presentations. As a clinical syndrome, HFpEF is characterized by typical signs and symptoms of HF, a distinct cardiac phenotype and raised natriuretic peptides. Non-cardiac comorbidities frequently co-exist and contribute to the pathophysiology of HFpEF. To date, no therapy has proven to improve outcomes in HFpEF, with drug development hampered, at least partly, by lack of consensus on appropriate standards for pre-clinical HFpEF models. Recently, two clinical algorithms (HFA-PEFF and H2FPEF scores) have been developed to improve and standardize the diagnosis of HFpEF. In this review, we evaluate the translational utility of HFpEF mouse models in the context of these HFpEF scores. We systematically recorded evidence of symptoms and signs of HF or clinical HFpEF features and included several cardiac and extra-cardiac parameters as well as age and sex for each HFpEF mouse model. We found that most of the pre-clinical HFpEF models do not meet the HFpEF clinical criteria, although some multifactorial models resemble human HFpEF to a reasonable extent. We therefore conclude that to optimize the translational value of mouse models to human HFpEF, a novel approach for the development of pre-clinical HFpEF models is needed, taking into account the complex HFpEF pathophysiology in humans.

There are limited data examining whether body mass index (BMI) influences the association between cardiovascular biomarkers and incident heart failure (HF).

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Abstract

Heart failure (HF) remains a major global problem. In the Netherlands, 1.5-2.0% of the total population is diagnosed with HF. Over 30,000 HF patients are admitted annually in the Netherlands, and this number is expected to further increase given the ageing population and the chronic nature of HF. Despite ongoing efforts to reduce the burden of HF, morbidity and mortality rates of this disease remain high. However, several new treatment modalities have become available or are expected to become available in the coming years. This review will provide an overview of HF research conducted in the Netherlands (often in an international setting) that may have clinical consequences for diagnosis, treatment and prevention of HF, and will also evaluate outcomes of larger clinical trials that have been conducted in the Netherlands.

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