Female rats with severe left ventricle volume overload exhibit more cardiac hypertrophy but fewer myocardial transcriptional changes than males.

ABSTRACT: Aortic valve regurgitation (AR) imposes a volume overload (VO) to the left ventricle (LV). Male rats with a pathological heart overload usually progress more quickly towards heart failure than females. We examined whether a sexual dimorphism exists in the myocardial transcriptional adaptations to AR. Adult Wistar male and female rats either underwent a sham operation or were induced with AR and then followed for 26 weeks. Female AR rats gained relatively more LV mass than males (75 vs. 42%). They had a similar increase in LV chamber dimensions compared to males but more wall thickening. On the other hand, fatty acid oxidation (FAO)-related LV enzyme activity was only decreased in AR males. The expression of genes encoding FAO-related enzymes was only reduced in AR males and not in females.

SUBMITTER: Beaumont C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5429715 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature