ANGPTL2 aggravates doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity via inhibiting DUSP1 pathway.

Angiopoietin-like protein 2 (ANGPTL2) plays versatile roles in various cardiovascular diseases. Its connection to doxorubicin (DOX)-related cardiomyopathy, however, remains elusive. To determine the role of ANGPTL2, an adeno-associated viral vector was used to overexpress ANGPTL2 in the murine heart 4 weeks before DOX treatment (15 mg/kg). Moreover, mice were injected with adenoviral vectors to knock down ANGPTL2 in the myocardium. Echocardiography and hemodynamics were used to determine the cardiac function. The effect of ANGPTL2 and its downstream target were elucidated by applying molecular and biochemical strategies. We found that ANGPTL2 expression was significantly increased in response to DOX stimulation. Moreover, cardiac-specific ANGPTL2 overexpression exacerbated DOX-related cardiac dysfunction, myocardial apoptosis, and oxidative stress. Mechanistically, ANGPTL2 aggravated DOX-induced cardiac injury via inhibiting the dual specificity phosphatase 1 (DUSP1) pathway and DUSP1 overexpression significantly impeded DOX-induced cardiomyopathy in ANGPTL2-overexpressed mice. Altogether, ANGPTL2 aggravated DOX-related cardiac injury by suppressing the DUSP1 pathway.