Publications by authors named "Marisa Jelinek"
Background: Unloading of failing hearts by left ventricular assist devices induces an extensive cardiac remodeling which may lead to a reversal of the initial phenotype-or to its deterioration. The mechanisms underlying these processes are unclear.
Hypothesis: Heterotopic heart transplantion (hHTX) is an accepted model for the study of mechanical unloading in rodents.
Article Synopsis
- Researchers used different mouse strains to explore how genetic factors influence susceptibility to ventricular arrhythmias in response to β-adrenergic stimulation and blockade.
- They found that Balb/c mice exhibited the highest occurrence and complexity of arrhythmias, while BS mice showed greater protection against these irregular heartbeats.
- The study concluded that genetic variations significantly impact the risk of developing arrhythmias, independent of factors like basal β-adrenergic tone or heart rate changes.
Objectives: Previous small animal models for simulation of mechanical unloading are solely performed in healthy or infarcted hearts, not representing the pathophysiology of hypertrophic and dilated hearts emerging in heart failure patients. In this article, we present a new and economic small animal model to investigate mechanical unloading in hypertrophic and failing hearts: the combination of transverse aortic constriction (TAC) and heterotopic heart transplantation (hHTx) in rats.
Methods: To induce cardiac hypertrophy and failure in rat hearts, three-week old rats underwent TAC procedure.