Microglial metabolic reprogramming drives cognitive decline in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.
Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is a rapidly growing public health concern and an emerging contributor to dementia, yet the mechanisms linking cardiometabolic dysfunction to neurodegeneration remain poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that HFpEF drives a sustained neuroinflammatory state through microglial metabolic reprogramming. Using a clinically relevant murine model of HFpEF, we identified robust induction of HIF-1α signaling in microglia via integrated transcriptomics and metabolomics, coupled with increased glycolytic metabolism revealed by extracellular flux analysis. Conditional deletion of <i>Hif1a</i> in microglia during HFpEF attenuated neuroinflammation, preserved white matter integrity, and rescued cognitive performance. We further identify Sema4D as a HIF-1α-dependent, microglia-derived effector linking metabolic stress to white matter injury. These findings establish a mechanistic bridge between cardiovascular disease and cognitive dysfunction and reveal microglial HIF-1α signaling as a tractable therapeutic strategy for preventing cognitive decline in cardiometabolic disease.
