Influence of Serotonin 5-HT Receptors on Responses to Cardiac Stressors in Transgenic Mouse Models.

The current study aimed to deepen our knowledge on the role of cardiac 5-HT receptors under pathophysiological conditions. To this end, we used transgenic (TG) mice that overexpressed human 5-HT receptors solely in cardiac myocytes (5-HT-TG mice) and their wild-type (WT) littermates that do not have functional cardiac 5-HT receptors as controls. We found that an inflammation induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was detrimental to cardiac function in both 5-HT-TG and WT mice.