Colchicine prevents ventricular arrhythmias vulnerability in diet-induced obesity rats.

This study aimed to assess the role of colchicine in ventricular arrhythmias (VAs) induced by high fat diet (HFD)-fed rats. Male rats were divided into four groups: CTL, normal diet plus saline; CTC, normal diet plus colchicine; HFD, HFD plus saline; HFC: HFD plus colchicine. Metabolic parameters, ECG parameters, ventricular electrophysiological parameters, ventricular histology, Western blot and RT-qPCR were measured. Compared with the HFD group, colchicine treatment significantly improved metabolic parameters, reduced ventricular fibrosis, increased the expression of Cav1.2, Kv4.2, Nav1.5, and Cx43, reduced CaMKII, p-CaMKII, p-RyR2 (S2808), and p-RyR2 (S2814) expression in LV. Furthermore, colchicine inhibited the inflammatory responses, prolonged ventricular effective refractory period (ERP), reduced corrected QT interval (QTc) and Tpeak–Tend interval, so as to reduce the susceptibility to VAs in obesity rats. Colchicine could mitigate ventricular fibrosis, ventricular electrical remodeling, as well as the expression of ion channels, and inhibit obesity-induced inflammatory responses, which provides a new idea for colchicine to prevent VAs in obese individuals. • Colchicine improved metabolic parameters in obesity rats. • Colchicine reduced ventricular fibrosis in obesity rats. • Colchicine ameliorated ventricular electrical remodeling in obesity rats. • Colchicine suppressed inflammatory responses in obesity rats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]