iabetes mellitus (DM) is one of the most important risk factors of cardiovascular diseases, and numerous patients who are afflicted with diabetes usually suffer the diffused stenosis of coronary arteries, leading to dreadful consequences such as myocardial infarction and cardiomyopathy. Non-invasive evaluation tools such as Doppler echocardiography demonstrate the impairment of cardiac function in diabetic animal models as well as in diabetic patients, 1,2 whereas the mechanism is still not well elucidated.Neuropathy is one of the common complications of diabetes, which could result in the degeneration of the nerve fibers both in diabetic animals and patients. 3-5 Transient Receptor Potential Vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) is a non-selective cation channel and is diversely distributed in terminals of sensory nerve fibers, dorsal root ganglia (DRG), spinal cord, and many other various regions in the brain. 6 It could lead to the release of neurotransmitters such as calcitonin generelated peptide (CGRP) from peripheral nerve terminals when activated by capsaicin, protons, noxious heat, etc. 7,8 It has been found that in diabetes-prone NOD mice, the protein expression and function of TRPV1 was significantly depressed in DRG. 9 Using immunohistochemical staining, TRPV1 was also found to be reduced in epineurial arterioles in long-term diabetic rats. 10 These investigations suggest that the expression of TRPV1 is susceptible to diabetes. In addition, recent studies disclose that TRPV1 is expressed in the myocardium and perivascular region, which are close to the epicardial surface of ventricles. 11 We revealed that the expression of TRPV1 in diabetic hearts was significantly suppressed in our previous study. 12 However, the impact of the decreased TRPV1 on the diabetic heart has not been investigated yet.A few studies have revealed that TRPV1 can serve as a molecular integrator of various noxious stimuli, especially the myocardial ischemia, in order to protect the hearts against ischemic injury. 11,13 For example, exogenous agonists of TRPV1 exert a cardioprotective effect on ischemia/reperfusion injury, whereas TRPV1 gene knockout eliminates the protection. 14,15 Therefore, it is reasonable to hypothesize that the alteration of TRPV1 secondary to diabetes can be related to the severe postischemic injury of the heart.In the present study, we measure the expression of TRPV1 and CGRP in diabetic hearts and investigate the effect of TRPV1 on the cardiac function after ischemia injury. The results might help explain the vulnerability of diabetic hearts to ischemic injury.