EurekAlert! -- LA JOLLA, Calif., November 1, 2010 – One of the many advantages of maintaining a normal body weight is having healthy fat, which in turn supports a healthy heart. Fat tissue is increasingly seen as more than just a storage depot – it’s also an active secretory organ that normally produces high levels of a cardioprotective hormone called adiponectin. How adiponectin protects the hearts of healthy people has long been a mystery, and now a team led by Barbara Ranscht, Ph.D. and Pilar Ruiz-Lozano, Ph.D. at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) reveals that the protein T-cadherin is the receptor that anchors adiponectin to heart cells. This new study, published November 1 in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, helps answer the longstanding question about how adiponectin prevents stress-induced damage in the heart.
