Dantrolene, a RyR2 stabilizer, restores impaired diastolic function in the pressure-verloaded hypertrophied heart

To investigate whether dantrolene (DAN), cardiac ryanodine receptor (RyR2) stabilizer, improves impaired diastolic function in an early pressure-overloaded hypertrophied heart, pressure-overload hypertrophy was induced by transverse aortic constriction (TAC) in mice. Wild-type (WT) mice were divided into four groups: sham-operated mice (Sham), sham-operated mice treated with DAN (DAN+Sham), TAC mice (TAC), and TAC mice treated with DAN (DAN+TAC). The mice were then followed up for 2 weeks. Left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy was induced in TAC, but not DAN+TAC mice, 2 weeks after TAC. There were no differences in LV fractional shortening among the four groups. Catheter tip micromanometer showed that the time constant of LV pressure decay, an index of diastolic function, was significantly prolonged in TAC but not in DAN+TAC mice. Diastolic function was significantly impaired in TAC, but not in DAN+TAC mice as determined by cell shortening and Ca²⁺ transients. An increase in diastolic Ca²⁺ leakage and a decrease in calmodulin (CaM) binding affinity to RyR2 were observed in TAC mice, while diastolic Ca²⁺ leakage improved in DAN+TAC mice. Thus, DAN prevented the progression of hypertrophy and improved the impairment of LV relaxation by inhibiting diastolic Ca²⁺ leakage through RyR2 and the dissociation of CaM from RyR2.