New Zealand medical researchers say they have linked a protein secreted by body fat with reduced heart function after heart attacks.
The protein, resistin, is secreted from fatty tissue around the body and cells found in the fat that blocks heart arteries.
Researchers from Otago University's Christchurch Schoolof Medicine and Health Sciences have found that resistin appeared to reduce the heart's ability to recover after a cardiac event.
Researcher Sarah Rothwell said fatty tissue could play a much more negative role in body chemistry than first thought.
"We're now finding that all kinds of bad proteins and hormones can come from fatty tissue in obese people," she said.
"This isn't just fat which sits in the body and does nothing. It appears to be having active negative effects on the body, and resistin is part of this process."
Dr Rothwell's research shows for the first time that when there is a major cardiac event with high blood levels of resistin, the heart takes much longer to recover and doesn't contract so well to enable blood to be pumped around the body.
"Our study shows the heart recovers only 68 per cent of its previous ability to contract when resistin levels are high.
"Normally it would recover to about 90 per cent, so this reduction in contraction has major implications for survivability following a cardiac event."
Dr Rothwell and colleague Chris Pemberton will soon extend the research to look at survivability in patients with high resistin levels after a heart attack.
They say resistin may eventually be used as a biomarker for diagnosis and treatment during heart attack.
Dr Rothwell said: "It may also be possible to develop a drug to block resistin and prevent its negative effect on people with heart problems."
