Critical Role of Apoptosis Signal-Regulating Kinase 1 in Aldosterone/Salt-Induced Cardiac Inflammation and Fibrosis

The molecular mechanism underlying aldosterone/salt-induced cardiovascular injury remains to be defined. This work was undertaken to determine the role of apoptosis signal-regulating kinase 1 (ASK1) in the mechanism underlying aldosterone-induced cardiac injury in vivo. We compared the in vivo effects of 4 weeks of aldosterone/salt treatment on wild-type and ASK1-deficient mice. Aldosterone infusion plus high salt intake in wild-type mice significantly increased blood pressure and urinary albumin excretion and decreased plasma potassium concentrations, and these effects of aldosterone/salt were not affected by ASK1 deficiency. Thus, ASK1 seems to play a minor role in aldosterone-induced hypertension and renal injury. ASK1 deficiency also failed to affect aldosterone-induced cardiac hypertrophy. However, ASK1 deficiency markedly ameliorated aldosterone-induced cardiac injury, eg, the enhancement of cardiac macrophage infiltration, monocyte chemotactic protein 1 expression, interstitial fibrosis, perivascular fibrosis, and transforming growth factor-beta 1 and collagen type I expressions. Thus, ASK1 participates in aldosterone-induced cardiac inflammation and fibrosis. Furthermore, the enhancement of NADPH oxidase-mediated cardiac oxidative stress caused by aldosterone infusion was markedly lessened by ASK1 deficiency, which was associated with the significant amelioration by ASK1 deficiency of aldosterone-induced cardiac Nox2 upregulation. Furthermore, aldosterone/salt treatment significantly enhanced cardiac expression of the angiotensin-converting enzyme and angiotensin II type 1 receptor in wild-type mice, whereas the enhancement of these proteins by aldosterone/salt was abolished by ASK1 deficiency. Our results demonstrate that ASK1 is implicated in aldosterone/salt-induced cardiac inflammation and fibrosis through the enhancement of NADPH oxidase-mediated oxidative stress and the upregulation of the cardiac renin-angiotensin system. (Hypertension. 2009; 54: 544-551).