Chronic exercise in rats and iron-deficiency anemia in ducklings resulted in a statistically significant increase in coronary-cast weight and arborization compared to controls.
Do exercise, anemia, or pharmacological agents alter the coronary arterial tree morphology in small animal models?
Chronic exercise and anemia induce structural enlargement and increased arborization of the coronary arterial tree in small animal models.
Vinyl acetate corrosion casts were prepared of the coronary arterial trees of chronically exercised rats and of suitable control animals. In four experiments, there was a statistically significant increase in the mean coronary-cast weight of the exercised animals over that of controls. In two experiments, the coronary- cast/heart-weight ratios were significantly increased. In three-week-old ducklings rendered anemic by an iron-deficient diet, corrosion casts of the coronary vessels showed marked increases in cast weight, increase in size of homologous vessels, and generally more luxuriant arborization of the tree. No differences were found when coronary casts of thyroxin-injected or of pentaerythritol tetranitrate-injected rats were compared with those of control animals. Right-to-left-side coronary anastomoses were demonstrated in 75 per cent of guinea-pig hearts studied by the corrosion-cast technique. In five experiments, retrograde filling of a ligated anterior descending branch of the left coronary artery was demonstrated when the vinyl acetate solution was injected into the aorta.
Tepperman et al. (1961) studied this question. Exercise and Anemia vs. Control animals was evaluated on Coronary-cast weight and coronary-cast/heart-weight ratios. Chronic exercise in rats and iron-deficiency anemia in ducklings resulted in a statistically significant increase in coronary-cast weight and arborization compared to controls.