Abstract
The adipokine chemerin is a candidate for connecting obesity to hypertension. STUDY OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that a high fat (HF) diet stimulates dependence on chemerin for blood pressure regulation. DESIGN: Blood pressure in male Sprague Dawley rats fed a control (10 % fat) or HF (60 % fat) diet from weaning was measured using radiotelemetry. Antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs), administered after 17 weeks of feeding, were used to abolish chemerin production. RESULTS: The HF diet did not increase blood pressure (mm Hg; control = 117.0 ± 2.5; HF = 122.0 ± 2.2). An ASO against chemerin (dosed 1×/week, 4 weeks) similarly reduced blood pressure in the control (-14.0 ± 2.7 mmHg) and HF rat (-12.4 ± 2.3). Chemerin mRNA was abolished in the liver and fats (primary producers of chemerin) from rats given the ASO chemerin vs control. CONCLUSION: A HF diet alone is insufficient to stimulate the dependence of blood pressure in the rat on chemerin.