Relationship between remodeling and function of left ventricle and angiotensin II AT1 receptor expression after myocardial infarction in rats.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the relationship between remodeling and dysfunction of left ventricle (LV) and the expression of the angiotensin II AT1 receptor mRNA after myocardial infarction (MI) in rats.

METHODS

Nine MI rats (Group A) and 8 sham-operated rats (Group B) were studied by both Doppler echocardiography and Dot blot using Digoxingenin-labelled cDNA probes.

RESULTS

Compared with Group B, Group A showed the increase in LV internal diastolic diameter (0.87 +/- 0.06 mm vs 0.66 +/- 0.03 mm, respectively, P < 0.01) and volume (0.73 +/- 0.09 ml vs 0.51 +/- 0.05 ml, P < 0.01). In addition, thinning of anterior wall, thickening of posterior wall, increasing of peak early filling velocity (peak E), decreasing of late filling velocity (peak A) and increasing of the E/A were demonstrated in MI rats 7 weeks after MI. The levels of the cardiac angiotensin II AT1 receptor mRNA in Group A were higher than those of Group B (2.2-fold).

CONCLUSIONS

Seven weeks after MI in rats, character of LV remodeling and dysfunction were developed and the expression of cardiac angiotensin II AT1 receptor mRNA was increased.