The effect of chronic alloxan- and streptozotocin-induced diabetes on isolated rat heart performance

1982 ◽  
Vol 60 (7) ◽  
pp. 902-911 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rao V. S. V. Vadlamudi ◽  
Robert L. Rodgers ◽  
John H. McNeill

Cardiac disease is a common secondary complication appearing in chronic diabetics. Isolated perfused working hearts obtained from both acute and chronic diabetic rats have also been shown to exhibit cardiac functional abnormalities when exposed to high work loads. We studied cardiac performance at various time points after induction of diabetes in rats to determine exactly when functional alterations appeared and whether these alterations progressed with the disease state. Female Wistar rats were made diabetic by a single i.v. injection of either alloxan (65 mg/kg) or streptozotocin (STZ 60 mg/kg). Cardiac performance was assessed at 7, 30, 100, 180, 240, and 360 days after induction of diabetes using the isolated perfused working heart technique. No changes were observed in the positive and negative dP/dt development at various atrial filling pressures in the diabetic hearts 7 days after treatment. Alloxan diabetic rat hearts exhibited depressed left ventricular pressure and positive and negative dP/dt development when perfused at high atrial filling pressures, at 30. 100, and 240 days after treatment. STZ diabetic rat hearts exhibited depressed cardiac performance at high atrial filling pressures at 100, 180, and 360 days after treatment, but not at 30 days after treatment. Control hearts exhibited slight but significant depressions in cardiac function with age. These results suggest that cardiac functional alterations appear in diabetic rats about 30 days after induction and progress with the disease. These alterations may indicate the development of a cardiomyopathy.

2017 ◽  
Vol 95 (11) ◽  
pp. 1343-1350
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Vranic ◽  
Stefan Simovic ◽  
Petar Ristic ◽  
Tamara Nikolic ◽  
Isidora Stojic ◽  
...  

Currently, cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of global mortality, while diabetes mellitus remains an important cause of cardiovascular morbidity. A recent study showed that patients with diabetes mellitus treated with mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists have improved coronary microvascular function, leading to improved diastolic dysfunction. In this study, we evaluated the influence of acute administration of spironolactone on myocardial function in rats with streptozotocin-induced diabetes mellitus, with special emphasis on cardiodynamic parameters in diabetic rat hearts. The present study was carried out on 40 adult male Wistar albino rats (8 weeks old). Rats were randomly divided into 4 groups (10 animals per group): healthy rats treated with 0.1 μmol/L of spironolactone, diabetic rats treated with 0.1 μmol/L of spironolactone, healthy rats treated with 3 μmol/L of spironolactone, and diabetic rats treated with 3 μmol/L of spironolactone. Different, dose-dependent, acute responses of spironolactone treatment on isolated, working diabetic and healthy rat heart were observed in our study. In healthy rats, better systolic function was achieved with higher spironolactone dose, while in diabetic rats, similar effects of low and high spironolactone dose were observed.


2011 ◽  
Vol 300 (2) ◽  
pp. C246-C255 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. R. MacDonald ◽  
M. Oellermann ◽  
S. Rynbeck ◽  
G. Chang ◽  
K. Ruggiero ◽  
...  

In diabetic cardiomyopathy, ventricular dysfunction occurs in the absence of hypertension or atherosclerosis and is accompanied by altered myocardial substrate utilization and depressed mitochondrial respiration. It is not known if mitochondrial function differs across the left ventricular (LV) wall in diabetes. In the healthy heart, the inner subendocardial region demonstrates higher rates of blood flow, oxygen consumption, and ATP turnover compared with the outer subepicardial region, but published transmural respirometric measurements have not demonstrated differences. We aim to measure mitochondrial function in Wistar rat LV to determine the effects of age, streptozotocin-diabetes, and LV layer. High-resolution respirometry measured indexes of respiration in saponin-skinned fibers dissected from the LV subendocardium and subepicardium of 3-mo-old rats after 1 mo of streptozotocin-induced diabetes and 4-mo-old rats following 2 mo of diabetes. Heart rate and heartbeat duration were measured under isoflurane-anesthesia using a fetal-Doppler, and transmission electron microscopy was employed to observe ultrastructural differences. Heart rate decreased with age and diabetes, whereas heartbeat duration increased with diabetes. While there were no transmural respirational differences in young healthy rat hearts, both myocardial layers showed a respiratory depression with age (30–40%). In 1-mo diabetic rat hearts only subepicardial respiration was depressed, whereas after 2 mo diabetes, respiration in subendocardial and subepicardial layers was depressed and showed elevated leak (state 2) respiration. These data provide evidence that mitochondrial dysfunction is first detectable in the subepicardium of diabetic rat LV, whereas there are measureable changes in LV mitochondria after only 4 mo of aging.


1983 ◽  
Vol 245 (6) ◽  
pp. E560-E567 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. R. Bielefeld ◽  
C. S. Pace ◽  
B. R. Boshell

An alteration in calcium metabolism in cardiac muscle was observed in diabetic rats 3 mo after streptozotocin treatment. Depression of cardiac output and left ventricular pressure development were more sensitive to decreased extra-cellular calcium in hearts from diabetic than from control animals and occurred within the normal physiological range of freely ionized serum calcium. This decrease in calcium sensitivity was not present after 2 wk of diabetes. In vivo treatment with insulin for 1 mo completely reversed the effect. Addition of octanoate (0.3 mM) to the perfusate of isolated hearts completely reversed the defect, whereas epinephrine (25 nM) only partially reversed it. When the glucose concentration of the perfusate was decreased, the function of diabetic hearts declined and was further diminished at decreasing calcium levels. Hearts from normal rats were unaffected. These results suggest that there is a defect in calcium metabolism or flux in the chronic diabetic rat heart.


2006 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Autumn M. Schumacher ◽  
Joseph P. Zbilut ◽  
Charles L. Webber ◽  
Dorie W. Schwertz ◽  
Mariann R. Piano

Cardiac variability can be assessed from two perspectives: beat-to-beat performance and continuous performance during the cardiac cycle. Linear analysis techniques assess cardiac variability by measuring the physical attributes of a signal, whereas nonlinear techniques evaluate signal dynamics. This study sought to determine if recurrence quantification analysis (RQA), a nonlinear technique, could detect pharmacologically induced autonomic changes in the continuous left ventricular pressure (LVP) and electrographic (EC) signals from an isolated rat heart—a model that theoretically contains no inherent variability. LVP and EC signal data were acquired simultaneously during Langendorff perfusion of isolated rat hearts before and after the addition of acetylcholine (n = 11), norepinephrine (n = 12), or no drug (n = 12). Two-minute segments of the continuous LVP and EC signal data were analyzed by RQA. Findings showed that%recurrence,%determinism, entropy, maxline, and trend from the continuous LVP signal significantly increased in the presence of both acetylcholine and norepinephrine, although systolic LVP significantly increased only with norepinephrine. In the continuous EC signal, the RQA trend variable significantly increased in the presence of norepinephrine. These results suggest that when either the sympathetic or parasympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system overwhelms the other, the dynamics underlying cardiac variability become stationary. This study also shows that information concerning inherent variability in the isolated rat heart can be gained via RQA of the continuous cardiac signal. Although speculative, RQA may be a tool for detecting alterations in cardiac variability and evaluating signal dynamics as a nonlinear indicator of cardiac pathology.


1986 ◽  
Vol 251 (3) ◽  
pp. H670-H675
Author(s):  
S. Bhimji ◽  
D. V. Godin ◽  
J. H. McNeill

Reversal of myocardial biochemical changes with insulin treatment (4 and 8 wk) was studied in 8 and 12 wk streptozotocin (STZ)-diabetic rats. STZ-induced diabetes was characterized by elevations in blood glucose, serum cholesterol, and triglycerides and depressed serum insulin levels. Insulin treatment for 4 and 8 wk completely restored the serum alterations to control values. The polyuria, polydipsia, and polyphagia were also markedly diminished by the insulin treatment. Diabetic rats had pronounced decreases in body, heart, and left ventricular weights, all of which were completely reversed by the insulin treatment. Hydroxyproline accumulation in diabetic rat hearts was only reversed by the 8-wk and not by the 4-wk insulin treatment. STZ produced a significant depletion of left ventricular magnesium content as well as depression of K+-stimulated sarcoplasmic reticulum and myofibrillar ATPase activities. Both the 4- and 8-wk insulin treatment produced a complete recovery of the myocardial magnesium content. No significant changes in sarcolemmal Na+-K+-ATPase and K+-stimulated p-nitrophenyl phosphatase activities were observed in diabetic animals compared with control. The decreased latency of the lysosomal hydrolase, N-acetyl-beta-glucosaminidase, and the increased collagen deposition observed in the diabetic hearts were only partially reversed by the 4-wk insulin treatment, but completely reversed by the 8-wk treatment period.


1983 ◽  
Vol 61 (5) ◽  
pp. 516-523 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arun G. Tahiliani ◽  
Rao V. S. V. Vadlamudi ◽  
John H. McNeill

Isolated perfused hearts from diabetic rats exhibit a decreased responsiveness to increasing work loads. However, the precise time point at which functional alterations occur is not clearly established. Previous observations in our laboratory have suggested that the alterations in myocardial function are not apparent at 30 days whereas they are clearly seen 100 days after streptozotocin-induced diabetes. We studied the cardiac function of 6-week diabetic rats using the isolated perfused heart preparation. The 6-week time period was found to be sufficient to cause depression of myocardial function in these animals. We also studied the effect of insulin treatment on myocardial performance of diabetic rats. Insulin treatment was initiated 3 days and 6 weeks after injection of streptozotocin (STZ). The treatment was continued for 6 and 4 weeks in the respective groups. Hearts from 6-week diabetic animals exhibited a depressed left ventricular developed pressure (LVDP) and positive and negative dP/dt at higher filling pressures when compared with 6-week control animals. However, the depression was not seen in the 6-week insulin-treated diabetic animals. Ten-week diabetic rat hearts also showed a depression of LVDP and positive and negative dP/dt when compared with 10-week controls. The group of animals that had been diabetic for 6 weeks and then treated for 4 weeks with insulin exhibited a reversal of the depressed myocardial function. These results demonstrate that depression of myocardial performance, which is evident 6 weeks after diabetes is induced, can be prevented if insulin treatment is initiated as the disease is induced. Further, insulin treatment is capable of reversing the abnormalities after they have occurred.


1985 ◽  
Vol 63 (8) ◽  
pp. 925-931 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arun G. Tahiliani ◽  
John H. McNeill

Diabetes results in myocardial functional alterations which are accompanied by a depression of biochemical parameters such as myosin ATPase and calcium uptake in the sarcoplasmic reticulum. Methyl palmoxirate, a fatty acid analog, is reported to decrease circulating glucose levels by inhibiting fatty acid metabolism, thus forcing carbohydrate utilization. In the present study, we attempted to prevent streptozotocin diabetes-induced myocardial alterations in the rat. Using the isolated working heart preparation, we observed a depression of myocardial function in rats 6 weeks after the induction of diabetes, which was characterized by the inability of these hearts to develop left ventricular pressures and rates of ventricular contraction and relaxation as well as control hearts at higher left atrial filling pressures. Methyl palmoxirate treatment (25 mg kg−1 day−1 po daily) was unable to control diabetes-induced changes in plasma glucose, triglycerides, insulin, and total lipids. Also, the functional depression seen in diabetic rat hearts was present despite the treatment. However, depression of calcium uptake and elevation of long chain acyl carnitines seen in sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) prepared from diabetic rat hearts could be prevented by the treatment. As triiodothyronine (T3) treatment has been shown to normalize depression of cardiac myosin ATPase in diabetic rats, we repeated the study using a combination of T3 (30 μg kg−1 day−1 sc daily) and methyl palmoxirate. While diabetic rats treated with T3 alone did not show significant improvement of myocardial function when compared with untreated diabetics, the function of those treated with both T3 and methyl palmoxirate was not significantly different from that in control rat hearts. These results suggest that while the combination of T3 and methyl palmoxirate may have other effects which result in improved function, preventing the depression of myosin ATPase and the SR calcium uptake can account at least in part for the functional depression.


1983 ◽  
Vol 245 (6) ◽  
pp. H969-H976 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. D. Lopaschuk ◽  
A. G. Tahiliani ◽  
R. V. Vadlamudi ◽  
S. Katz ◽  
J. H. McNeill

Cardiac sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) function and SR levels of long-chain (LC) acylcarnitines were determined in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats treated with insulin or D,L-carnitine. ATP-dependent calcium transport was significantly depressed in cardiac SR isolated from untreated diabetic rats compared with control rats. Diabetic rat cardiac SR levels of LC acylcarnitines were also significantly elevated. Various parameters of heart function (left ventricular developed pressure, +dP/dT, and -dP/dT), as determined on an isolated working heart apparatus, were found to be depressed in untreated diabetic rats. Cardiac SR isolated from diabetic rats treated throughout the study period with insulin or D,L-carnitine did not have elevated levels of LC acylcarnitines associated with SR membrane nor was SR calcium transport activity depressed. Heart function in the diabetic rats treated with insulin was similar to control rat hearts but heart function remained depressed in diabetic rats treated with D,L-carnitine. The data suggest that the LC acylcarnitines are involved in the observed impairment of cardiac SR function in diabetic rats. Other factors, however, must be contributing to the depression in heart function noted in these animals.


1994 ◽  
Vol 266 (2) ◽  
pp. H714-H719 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Verma ◽  
J. H. McNeill

The effects of metformin administration were studied in isolated perfused working hearts from control and diabetic rats. Control and streptozotocin-treated diabetic rats were treated for 8 wk with metformin hydrochloride. Treatment was initiated at 350 mg.kg-1 x day-1 and was gradually increased to a dose of 650 mg.kg-1 x day-1, which was maintained over a 6-wk period. Isolated heart performance was assessed under conditions of increasing preload to evaluate the performance of each heart to “stress.” Hearts from untreated diabetic rats exhibited a depressed response to increases in left atrial filling pressures from 17.5 to 22.5 cmH2O in terms of left ventricular developed pressure, ventricular contractility, and ventricular relaxation compared with age-matched untreated controls. The diabetic hearts also exhibited a delayed half time to relaxation at filling pressures from 15 to 22.5 cmH2O. The function curves were performed at a constant heart rate of 300 beats/min. These responses were restored to control values in diabetic rats treated with metformin. Metformin treatment did not affect the ventricular responses in control rats. Metformin reduced plasma glucose levels in the diabetic rats from 24.3 to 14.4 mM without any increase in the plasma insulin levels. The diabetic group had higher triglycerides than age-matched untreated control rats, and metformin administration in diabetic rats reduced triglyceride levels to control values but had no effect in control rats. In conclusion, metformin administration improves cardiac performance in streptozotocin-diabetic rats under conditions of increasing preload.


1983 ◽  
Vol 61 (5) ◽  
pp. 439-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary D. Lopaschuk ◽  
Sidney Katz ◽  
John H. McNeill

Isolated working hearts from diabetic rats have a decreased ability to respond to increasing preload or afterload. The ability of cardiac sarcoplasmic reticulum to transport Ca2+ was examined in diabetic rats. Hearts were obtained from female Wistar rats 120 days or 7 days after the induction of diabetes by a single I.V. injection of either alloxan (65 mg/kg) or streptozotocin (60 mg/kg). At all Ca2+ concentrations tested (0.2–5.0 μM free Ca2+) cardiac sarcoplasmic reticulum from 120-day diabetic rats showed a significant decrease in the rate of ATP-dependent tris-oxalate facilitated Ca2+ transport (62–73% of control). This was accompanied by a decrease in Ca2+ ATPase activity. The levels of long chain acylcarnitines associated with the microsomal sarcoplasmic reticulum preparation from 120-day diabetic rats were significantly higher than those present in sarcoplasmic reticulum from control rats. Palmitylcarnitine, the most abundant of the long chain acylcarnitines, in concentrations < 7 μM was found to be a potent time-dependent inhibitor of Ca2+ transport in both control and diabetic rat sarcoplasmic reticulum preparations; inhibition of Ca2+ transport was found to be more marked in the control preparations. This would indicate that a degree of inhibition produced by the high endogenous levels of palmitylcarnitine may already be present in the diabetic rat preparations. Cardiac sarcoplasmic reticulum prepared from acutely diabetic rats (7 days) did not show any decrease in Ca2+ transport ability. Levels of long chain acylcarnitines associated with the microsomal preparation enriched in sarcoplasmic reticulum were also unchanged. These findings suggest that the alteration in heart function in 120-day diabetic rats may be due to the buildup of cellular long chain acylcarnitines which inhibit sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ transport. The absence of any change in Ca2+-transport activity or levels of long chain acylcarnitines at 7 days suggests that the alterations seen in 120-day diabetic rats must be of gradual onset.


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