Effects of hypertension and coronary constriction on cardiac function, morphology, and contractile proteins in rats

In an attempt to elucidate the effects of two major risk factors of heart failure in humans, high blood pressure and coronary artery disease, renal hypertension and coronary artery constriction were induced singularly and in combination in rats, and the functional, structural, and biochemical alterations of the myocardium were examined 12-13 wk later. Renal hypertension (RH), coronary narrowing (CN), and their association (NH) resulted in left ventricular failure demonstrated by a significant increase in left ventricular end-diastolic pressure, a decrease in +dP/dt and -dP/dt, and a reduction in stroke volume and cardiac output. Measurements of ventricular loading documented that RH was characterized by elevations in systolic and diastolic wall stress of 42 and 160%, respectively. Corresponding changes with NH were 80 and 315%. CN was accompanied by an augmentation of diastolic wall stress only (280%). The abnormalities in mural stress were coupled with reductions in systolic and diastolic wall thickness-to-chamber radius ratios of 39 and 29% after CN. These anatomic parameters were preserved with RH, whereas the systolic wall thickness-to-chamber radius ratio was reduced 31% with NH. Structurally, multiple foci of replacement fibrosis were found with each intervention. The sites of tissue injury and their volume percent in the myocardium were comparable with CN and RH but were significantly more numerous and occupied a larger fraction of the ventricular wall in the presence of NH. Biochemically, the calcium dose-response curve of myofibrillar Mg2+ adenosinetriphosphatase (ATPase) activity did not vary with CN, RH, and NH. In contrast, a marked decrease in Ca2+ myosin ATPase activity was found in NH rats in association with a shift in myosin isoenzymes from V1 to V3. In conclusion, multiple physiological, morphological, and biochemical factors may participate in the generation of the abnormalities in ventricular loading with hypertension and/or coronary artery stenosis.