The Role of PPARs in Pathological Cardiac Hypertrophy and Heart Failure

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) are ligand-activated transcription factors involved in the regulation of lipid metabolism, energy production, and inflammation. It is well established that all of the three isoforms of PPARs expressed in the cardiomyocytes, and that PPARs are closely involved in the regulation of lipid metabolism and energy homeostasis as well as many other different aspects in the heart. We think that PPARs are very important therapeutic targets for drug development, however, the drugs targeting at PPARs meet some trouble in clinical practice, especially the reported side effects related to heart failure. This review summarizes different functions and mechanisms of each isoform in cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure, for the reason that if more efforts are made to investigate the interactions among different isoforms, minimize the off-target effects, and avoid PPARs-independent side effects, we can develop safer and more effective PPAR agonists for the clinical practice in the near future.