Right ventricular plasticity in a porcine model of chronic pressure overload
Section snippets
Animals and experimental design
Twenty-one 2-month-old Large White piglets with a mean weight of 25.1 ± 5.7 kg were used in these experiments. Piglets were randomized to a sham operation (control group) or to PH induction (PH group), followed after 6 weeks by either PH surgical treatment (REP group) or observation (NO-REP group). All animals were euthanized using a lethal intravenous potassium infusion at 12 weeks (Figure 1). The research protocol was approved by our institutional committee on animal welfare and all animals
Part I: Induction of experimental PH in piglets
Changes in pulmonary hemodynamics and RV remodeling. Table 1 summarizes the characteristics of the piglets at 6 weeks. Compared with controls, the PH group had higher MPAP and TPR at 6 weeks, as well as higher RVEDAI (6.2 ± 1.3 vs 10.6 ± 2.4 cm2/m2, p < 0.001) (Figure 2). RV systolic dysfunction also developed as reflected by significant decrease in both RVFAC and TAPSE over the same period (44.8 ± 9.1% vs 27.8 ± 6.2%, p < 0.001; and 1.89 ± 0.17 vs 1.41 ± 0.27 cm, p < 0.001, respectively) (
Discussion
The main finding of our study is that ventricular–arterial coupling is strongly related to RV remodeling and to β-MHC and BNP gene expression in chronic PH. Our results also suggest that altered ventricular–arterial coupling occurs early with the development of PH. For this study, we utilized a novel large-animal model of chronic RV pressure overload that allows us to generate PH of varying severity. In addition, the pulmonary conduit anastomosis provides an opportunity to study reverse
Disclosure statement
The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
We thank the team at the Laboratory of Surgical Research, Marie Lannelongue Hospital, for technical assistance and animal care. This study was supported by the Association chirurgicale pour le développement et l'amélioration des techniques de dépistage et de traitement des maladies cardio-vasculaires (ADETEC, Suresnes, France). The Vivid E9 cardiac ultrasound system (General Electric Medical System) was financed by a grant from the
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