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Hypertension, Vol 15, 225-233, Copyright © 1990 by American Heart Association

ARTICLES

Left ventricular structure and performance in middle-aged rats with deoxycorticosterone acetate-salt hypertension

RJ Tomanek and PA Barlow
Department of Anatomy, University of Iowa, Iowa City 52242.

We designed this study to establish the structural and functional characteristics of the hypertrophied left ventricle of middle-aged rats during mineralocorticoid-salt hypertension. Treatment was initiated at 12 months of age, and the rats were studied at either 13 or 15 months of age (after 1 or 3 months of treatment). All rats were unilaterally nephrectomized. One group received deoxycorticosterone acetate (DOCA) injections (30 mg/kg s.c.) biweekly and 1% NaCl drinking water (DOCA salt), and the other group was injected with the vehicle (sesame seed oil) and given tap water to drink (sham). During the first 4 weeks of DOCA-salt treatment, arterial pressure reached its peak and left ventricular enlargement was mainly due to increases of 47% in cardiocyte cross-sectional area in the middle layer of the left ventricular wall. The last 2 months were characterized by an accelerated endomyocardial growth. Because absolute left ventricular mass did not increase during the last 2 months of treatment, we conclude that cellular hypertrophy was accompanied by a focal loss of cardiocytes. Myocardial hydroxyproline concentration was initially elevated by 37% but normalized by the third month of treatment. Intracellularly, myofibril volume percent was not changed, but mitochondria volume percent declined (13% in the midmyocardium and 15% in the endomyocardium) and sarcoplasmic volume density increased by 25% and 39%, respectively, in these regions. Left ventricular hypertrophy was associated with enhanced peak cardiac and stroke indexes, measured during increased preload, after both 1 and 3 months of DOCA-salt treatment. Acceleration of flow, however, was depressed in the rats with left ventricular hypertrophy.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)