Pyle W Glen
IMPART Team Canada Investigator Network, Dalhousie Medicine, Saint John, NB, Canada.
Women's Health Research Institute at BC Women's Hospital + Health Centre, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
J Mol Cell Cardiol Plus. 2025 Jul 4;13:100474. doi: 10.1016/j.jmccpl.2025.100474. eCollection 2025 Sep.
Heart diseases are a leading cause of death globally. Laboratory and preclinical animal models of disease have been critical in advancing our understanding of the mechanisms of pathology, creating diagnostic tools, and developing therapeutic interventions. However, fundamental biological dissimilarities between humans and rodents limits their usefulness in research, and the induction of disease in an otherwise healthy animal creates unrealistic conditions under which diseases are typically studied. Dogs are at high risk of acquiring and dying from several naturally occurring heart disorders that also affect people. The spontaneous nature of these conditions, along with highly similar cardiovascular systems, offers unique opportunities to investigate cardiovascular disease in a more relevant model for humans. This review focuses on three common cardiac conditions that impact humans and dogs: dilated cardiomyopathy, arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, and mitral valve disease - comparing mechanisms of disease, diagnostics, and treatments, to identify strengths and present limitations of their utility. It is noted that the benefits of this research are bidirectional, with the potential to translate knowledge and clinical tools used in veterinary medicine to human patients, and vice versa.
心脏病是全球主要的死亡原因之一。疾病的实验室和临床前动物模型对于推进我们对病理机制的理解、创建诊断工具以及开发治疗干预措施至关重要。然而，人类和啮齿动物之间存在的基本生物学差异限制了它们在研究中的实用性，而且在原本健康的动物身上诱发疾病会创造出研究疾病时通常并不现实的条件。狗有很高的风险患上几种自然发生的、同样会影响人类的心脏疾病并因此死亡。这些病症的自然特性，以及高度相似的心血管系统，为在一个与人类更相关的模型中研究心血管疾病提供了独特的机会。本综述聚焦于三种影响人类和狗的常见心脏病症：扩张型心肌病、致心律失常性右心室心肌病和二尖瓣疾病——比较疾病机制、诊断方法和治疗手段，以确定其效用的优势和局限性。需要指出的是，这项研究的益处是双向的，有可能将兽医学中使用的知识和临床工具应用于人类患者，反之亦然。
