Myocardial Morphological Characteristics and Proarrhythmic Substrate in the Rat Model of Heart Failure Due to Chronic Volume Overload
2011
Abstract
Chronic volume overload leads to cardiac hypertrophy and later to heart failure (HF), which are both associated with increased risk of cardiac arrhythmias. The goal of this study was to describe changes in myocardial morphology and to characterize arrhythmogenic substrate in rat model of developing HF due to volume overload.
An arteriovenous fistula (AVF) was created in male Wistar rats between the inferior vena cava and abdominal aorta using needle technique. Myocardial morphology, tissue fibrosis, and connexin43 distribution, localization and phosphorylation were examined using confocal microscopy and Western blotting in the stage of compensated hypertrophy (11 weeks), and decompensated HF (21 weeks).