Chronic exogenous ketone supplementation blunts the decline of cardiac function in the failing heart

Male C57Bl/6N mice with established heart failure after transverse aortic constriction surgery received either 20 percent ketone ester or vehicle in drinking water for 2 weeks, and another cohort received a 1-hour intravenous infusion of beta-hydroxybutyrate or saline. Ketone ester raised blood BHB without causing ketoacidosis. Cardiac dysfunction kept worsening with vehicle but not with ketone ester, and ketone ester also reduced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy, cardiac periostin and cardiac fibrosis.