Atrial fibrillation and its arrhythmogenesis associated with insulin resistance

Background Insulin resistance (IR) is considered as a risk factor for atrial fibrillation (AF) even before diabetes develops. The pathophysiology and underlying mechanism are largely unclear. Methods We investigated the corresponding mechanism in two IR models of rats fed 15-week high-fat (HFa) and high-fructose/cholesterol (HFr) diets. AF was evaluated and induced by burst atrial pacing. Isolated atrial myocytes were used for whole-cell patch...