Department of Biomedical Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
Department of Ultrasound, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, China.
Pediatr Res. 2021 Oct;90(4):801-808. doi: 10.1038/s41390-020-01356-8. Epub 2021 Jan 27.
Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) leads to cardiac dysfunction and adverse remodeling of the fetal heart, as well as a higher risk of postnatal cardiovascular diseases. The rat model of IUGR, via uterine artery ligation, is a popular model but its cardiac sequelae is not well investigated. Here, we performed an echocardiographic evaluation of its cardiac function to determine how well it can represent the disease in humans.
Unilateral uterine artery ligation was performed at embryonic day 17 (E17) and echocardiography was performed at E19 and E20.
Growth-restricted fetuses were significantly smaller and lighter, and had an higher placenta-to-fetus weight ratio. Growth-restricted fetal hearts had reduced wall thickness-to-diameter ratio, indicating left ventricular (LV) dilatation, and they had elevated trans-mitral and trans-tricuspid E/A ratios and reduced left and right ventricular fractional shortening (FS), suggesting systolic and diastolic dysfunction. These were similar to human IUGR fetuses. However, growth-restricted rat fetuses did not demonstrate head-sparing effect, displayed a lower LV myocardial performance index, and ventricular outflow velocities were not significantly reduced, which were dissimilar to human IUGR fetuses.
Despite the differences, our results suggest that this IUGR model has significant cardiac dysfunction, and could be a suitable model for studying IUGR cardiovascular physiology.
Animal models of IUGR are useful, but their fetal cardiac function is not well studied, and it is unclear if they can represent human IUGR fetuses. We performed an echocardiographic assessment of the heart function of a fetal rat model of IUGR, created via maternal uterine artery ligation. Similar to humans, the model displayed LV dilatation, elevated E/A ratios, and reduced FS. Different from humans, the model displayed reduced MPI, and no significant outflow velocity reduction. Despite differences with humans, this rat model still displayed cardiac dysfunction and is suitable for studying IUGR cardiovascular physiology.
宫内生长受限（IUGR）可导致胎儿心脏功能障碍和重塑不良，以及增加产后心血管疾病的风险。通过子宫动脉结扎建立的大鼠 IUGR 模型是一种常用模型，但对其心脏后遗症的研究尚不完善。在此，我们通过超声心动图评估其心功能，以确定其在多大程度上能代表人类疾病。
在胚胎第 17 天（E17）行单侧子宫动脉结扎，在 E19 和 E20 行超声心动图检查。
生长受限的胎儿明显更小、更轻，胎盘与胎儿的重量比更高。生长受限的胎儿心脏壁厚度与直径的比值降低，提示左心室（LV）扩张，其二尖瓣和三尖瓣的跨瓣 E/A 比值升高，左、右心室的缩短分数（FS）降低，提示收缩和舒张功能障碍。这些与人类 IUGR 胎儿相似。然而，生长受限的大鼠胎儿没有出现头部保留效应，左心室心肌性能指数较低，心室流出速度没有明显降低，与人类 IUGR 胎儿不同。
尽管存在差异，但我们的结果表明，该 IUGR 模型存在明显的心功能障碍，可能是研究 IUGR 心血管生理学的合适模型。
IUGR 动物模型是有用的，但它们的胎儿心脏功能尚未得到充分研究，并且不清楚它们是否能代表人类 IUGR 胎儿。我们对通过母体子宫动脉结扎建立的 IUGR 大鼠模型的心脏功能进行了超声心动图评估。与人类相似，该模型显示 LV 扩张、E/A 比值升高和 FS 降低。与人类不同的是，该模型显示 MPI 降低，且流出速度无明显降低。尽管与人类存在差异，但这种大鼠模型仍显示出心脏功能障碍，适合研究 IUGR 心血管生理学。
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