Poster Abstracts

Introduction:Increasing evidence suggests an accelerated aging in heart of bipolar disorder (BD).Lithium, a mainstay medication used to BD, exhibits antiaging properties and cardioprotective potentials.This preclinical study investigated whether lithium regulated Klotho (an antiaging protein) in human cardiac fibroblasts and protected cardiac function related to cardiac fibrosis in rats with manic-like behaviors.Method: Real-time polymerase chain reaction and western blot analysis were performed to assess Klotho expressions in human cardiac fibroblasts following the treatment of LiCl at concentrations of 1.0 mM (i.e., high therapeutic level), 0.3 mM (i.e., low therapeutic level) or 0.1 mM (i.e., sub-therapeutic level) for 48 h.REM sleep deprivation was applied to induce manic-like behaviors and cardiac fibrosis-related dysfunction (i.e., the reduced mitral valve E/A ratio) in male Wistar rats.Serum levels of Klotho were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results:In human cardiac fibroblasts treated with LiCl 1.0 mM (n = 5) for 48 h, the expressions of Klotho protein and mRNA were significantly upregulated compared with the control (n = 5).By contrast, LiCl at concentrations of 0.1 (n = 5) and 0.3 mM (n = 5) had only a minimal effect on the expressions of Klotho protein and mRNA.In sleepdeprived rats with manic-like behaviors treated with LiCl 1 mmol/kg/ day orally (n = 3), the mitral valve E/A ratios and serum Klotho levels were significantly higher than those of sleep-deprived rats without LiCl treatment (n = 3).In addition, serum levels of Klotho were positively correlated with mitral valve E/A ratios (r = 0.68, p = 0.002). Conclusion:Therapeutic lithium may have cardioprotective potentials through the upregulation of Klotho antiaging protein.