Heterogeneous cardiac sympathetic innervation gradients promote arrhythmogenesis in murine dilated cardiomyopathy.

ABSTRACT: Ventricular arrhythmias (VAs) in heart failure are enhanced by sympathoexcitation. However, radiotracer studies of catecholamine uptake in failing human hearts demonstrate a proclivity for VAs in patients with reduced cardiac sympathetic innervation. We hypothesized that this counterintuitive finding is explained by heterogeneous loss of sympathetic nerves in the failing heart. In a murine model of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), delayed PET imaging of sympathetic nerve density using the catecholamine analog [11C]meta-Hydroxyephedrine demonstrated global hypoinnervation in ventricular myocardium. Although reduced, sympathetic innervation in 2 distinct DCM models invariably exhibited transmural (epicardial to endocardial) gradients, with the endocardium being devoid of sympathetic nerve fiber

SUBMITTER: Dajani AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10721311 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature