Furthermore, spontaneously hypertensive heart-failure-prone rats (characterized by obesity, insulin resistance, hypertension, and dilated cardiomyopathy), treated chronically with GLP-1 from 9 months of age (when they begin to progress to advanced heart failure and death) exhibited preserved cardiac contractile function, increased myocardial glucose uptake, improved survival, and a significant reduction in cardiac myocyte apoptosis [22]. The gene discussed is GCG; the disease is obesity due to melanocortin 4 receptor deficiency.