Ottenweller J E, Tapp W N, Chen T S, Natelson B H
Primate Neurobehavioral Unit, VA Medical Center, East Orange, NJ 07019.
Exp Aging Res. 1987 Spring-Summer;13(1-2):73-84. doi: 10.1080/03610738708259304.
The functional status of the cardiovascular system in health and cardiomyopathic (CM) hamsters was assessed throughout their lives by measuring heart weight and fluid in the pleural and peritoneal cavities. An index of cardiovascular age was developed from a multiple regression model of changes in these variables with chronological age. This index showed parallel changes in healthy and CM hamsters with increasing age, but CM hamsters with shorter lifespans underwent the changes at earlier ages. It was also a better predictor of viability than chronological age. The cardiovascular age index correctly predicted the early death of those hamsters which died before the average death age, whereas they should have been alive according to their chronological age. Conversely, hamsters which lived beyond the average death age had cardiovascular ages younger than the average death age, whereas their chronological ages erroneously indicated they should have been dead. This index may have been able to assess viability because it was correlated with histopathological signs of congestive heart failure in both strains of hamsters, as well as with the total amount of pathology found in them. Hamsters which die naturally at a particular age should have older cardiovascular indices than those sacrificed at the same age, and CM hamsters which died at 11-13 months of age did have older cardiovascular ages than hamsters that were sacrificed at these ages. Three experiment examined the effects of various treatments on the index of cardiovascular age. Life in constant light decreased the cardiovascular age of CM hamsters by 30% and extended life by 25%. Chronic digitalis treatment will improve cardiovascular performance, and it prevented increases in cardiovascular age during the end stages of heart failure. Finally, life-threatening chronic stress increased cardiovascular age in CM hamsters, which suggested that severe stress brought CM hamsters nearer to death. However, it was not possible to determine whether the effects of these treatments were on aging or health. Thus, the data suggested that aging, at least in hamsters, may be closely related to the natural development of heart failure which represents a common end stage of life in both cardiomyopathic hamsters and very old, supposedly healthy hamsters.
通过测量心脏重量以及胸膜腔和腹膜腔内的液体量，对健康和患心肌病（CM）仓鼠的心血管系统功能状态进行了终生评估。心血管年龄指数是根据这些变量随实际年龄变化的多元回归模型得出的。该指数显示，随着年龄增长，健康仓鼠和CM仓鼠呈现出平行变化，但寿命较短的CM仓鼠在较早年龄就经历了这些变化。它也是比实际年龄更好的生存能力预测指标。心血管年龄指数正确预测了那些在平均死亡年龄之前死亡的仓鼠的早亡情况，而按照它们的实际年龄本应存活。相反，存活超过平均死亡年龄的仓鼠，其心血管年龄比平均死亡年龄小，而它们的实际年龄却错误地表明它们应该已经死亡。该指数可能能够评估生存能力，因为它与两种品系仓鼠充血性心力衰竭的组织病理学特征相关，也与在它们身上发现的病理学总量相关。在特定年龄自然死亡的仓鼠，其心血管指数应比在相同年龄处死后的仓鼠更高，而在11至13月龄死亡的CM仓鼠的心血管年龄确实比在这些年龄处死后的仓鼠更大。三项实验研究了各种治疗对心血管年龄指数的影响。持续光照环境下的生活使CM仓鼠的心血管年龄降低了30%，寿命延长了25%。慢性洋地黄治疗可改善心血管功能，并防止在心力衰竭末期心血管年龄增加。最后，危及生命的慢性应激增加了CM仓鼠的心血管年龄，这表明严重应激使CM仓鼠更接近死亡。然而，无法确定这些治疗的效果是作用于衰老还是健康。因此，数据表明，至少在仓鼠中，衰老可能与心力衰竭的自然发展密切相关，心力衰竭是心肌病仓鼠和非常年老的、本应健康的仓鼠生命的常见终末期。
