Human adrenomedullin gene delivery protects against cardiovascular remodeling and renal injury

We investigated the potential roles of adrenomedullin (AM) in cardiovascular and renal function by somatic gene delivery. We showed that a single intravenous injection of the human AM gene under the control of cytomegalovirus promoter/enhancer induces a prolonged delay in blood pressure rise for several weeks in spontaneously hypertensive rats, Dahl salt-sensitive, DOCA-salt, and two-kidney one-clip hypertensive rats as compared to their respective controls injected with a reporter gene. Expression of the human AM transcript was identified in the heart, kidney, lung, liver and aorta of the rat after adenovirus-mediated AM gene delivery by RT-PCR followed by Southern blot analysis. Immunoreactive human AM levels were measured in rat plasma and urine following AM gene delivery. AM gene delivery induced significant reduction of left ventricular mass in these hypertensive animal models. It also reduces urinary protein excretion and increases glomerular filtration rate, renal blood flow and urinary cAMP levels. AM gene transfer attenuated cardiomyocyte diameter and interstitial fibrosis in the heart, and reduced glomerular sclerosis, tubular disruption, protein cast accumulation and renal cell proliferation in the kidney. In the rat model with myocardial ischmia/reperfusion injury, AM gene delivery significantly reduced myocardial infarction, apoptosis, and superoxide production. Furthermore, local AM gene delivery significantly inhibited arterial thickening, promoted reendothelialization and increased vascular cGMP levels in rat artery after balloon angioplasty. Collectively, these results indicate that human AM gene delivery attenuates hypertension, myocardial infarction, renal injury and cardiovascular remodeling in animal models via cAMP and cGMP signaling pathways. These findings provide new insights into the role of AM in cardiovascular and renal function. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.