The naked mole-rat (NMR) is a strictly subterranean rodent with a low resting metabolic rate. Nevertheless, it can greatly increase its metabolic activity to meet the high energetic demands associated with digging through compacted soils in its xeric natural habitat where food is patchily distributed. We hypothesized that the NMR heart would naturally have low basal function and exhibit a large...

Aortic banding in the rat has become a popular method to induce left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy and heart failure. However, because of often extensive intrathoracic adhesions and inflammatory cell infiltrates resulting from the traditional surgical approach, an uncomplicated second thoracic incision for genetic manipulation is impeded. In this study, we describe a novel surgical technique of ...

To determine whether strength-trained individuals with physiological concentric left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy exhibit enhanced inotropic responses to catecholamines, we studied 11 bodybuilders, aged 33.0 +/- 2 (SE) yr old, and 10 sedentary healthy subjects, aged 31.3 +/- 2.4 yr old, at baseline and during infusion of incremental doses of dobutamine after atropine. The bodybuilders had large...

Aims & Objectives: To assess the functional efficiency and adaptation of tongue musculature in surgically treated cleft Patients by measuring the amplitude of contraction, fractional shortening of tongue musculature and to compare the changes in functional adaptive efficiency following surgery using m-mode ultrasonography. Methods: The study was carried out on 90 cleft patients both with comple...

BACKGROUND Activation of ErbB2/4 receptor tyrosine kinases in cardiomyocytes by neuregulin treatment is associated with improvement in cardiac function, supporting its use in human patients with heart failure despite the lack of a specific mechanism. Neuregulin infusion in rodents increases cardiac myosin light chain kinase (cMLCK) expression and cardiac myosin regulatory light chain (RLC) phos...

Although an increased left ventricular (LV) diastolic diameter (DD) and a decreased ejection fraction have been used as markers for the surgical replacement of an insufficient aortic valve, these signals may be observed when irreversible myocardium damage has already occurred. The aim of this study was to determine whether change in LV geometry predicts systolic dysfunction in experimental aort...

Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) plays a critical role against myocardial infarction (MI). We hypothesized that activation of intrinsic ACE2 would be protective against ischemia-induced cardiac pathophysiology. Diminazene aceturate (DIZE), a small molecule ACE2 activator, has been used to evaluate this hypothesis. DIZE (15 mg/kg per day, s.c.) was injected 2 days before MI surgery and con...

BACKGROUND The relevance of the remodeling pattern in the model of rats exposed to cigarette smoke is not known. OBJECTIVE Analyzing the presence of different remodeling patterns in this model and its relation with the ventricular function. METHODS Smoking rats (n=47) have been divided according to the geometry pattern, analyzed by echocardiogram: normal (normal mass index and normal relati...