Kruppel-like factor 15 is required for the cardiac adaptive response to fasting.

Cardiac metabolism is highly adaptive in response to changes in substrate availability, as occur during fasting. This metabolic flexibility is essential to the maintenance of contractile function and is under the control of a group of select transcriptional regulators, notably the nuclear receptor family of factors member PPARα. However, the diversity of physiologic and pathologic states through which the heart must sustain function suggests the possible existence of additional transcriptional regulators that play a role in matching cardiac metabolism to energetic demand.