Cisapride protects against cardiac hypertrophy via inhibiting the up-regulation of calcineurin and NFATc-3.

Abstract Cisapride has been shown to have electrophysiological effects on the heart. The aim of this study was to investigate whether cisapride has effects on cardiac hypertrophy. Rat and cellular models of cardiac hypertrophy were used in this study. Cell surface area (CSA), mRNA and protein expression were used to evaluate cardiac hypertrophy. Cardiac function was measured by echocardiography. Cisapride attenuated ISO-induced increase in CSA in a dose-dependent manner in cultured neonatal rat cardiomyocytes. A significant anti-hypertrophic effect was achieved by cisapride 0.01 μM ( P P 2+ ([Ca 2+ ]i) and the upregulation of protein levels of calcineurin and NFATc-3 ( P P 2+ /calcineurin/NFAT and the present data provide new insight into this drug action.