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Gender‐based differences in perivascular collagen deposition in the hypertrophied heart of the Borderline Hypertensive Rat
Author(s) -
KrontirisLitowitz Johanna K.,
Foster Latisha,
Fulton Ben
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.21.5.a269-b
Subject(s) - endocrinology , medicine , perivascular space , chemistry , anatomy , pathology
In these experiments we compared perivascular collagen deposition in the hypertrophied hearts of 20 male and 20 female borderline hypertensive rats (BHR). Half of the animals were fed a high salt diet (8% NaCl) for 12 weeks and the other half were fed a normal salt diet (.6% NaCl). At the end of the experiment the animals were euthanized and the hearts harvested for perivascular collagen analysis. The mean perivascular collagen fraction was significantly greater in control males (12.5%, SEM 0.53%) than control females (5.9%, SEM 0.75%) (p<.05, n=5,5). In high salt males, the perivascular collagen fraction decreased (5.78%, SEM 1.39%), and there was no significant change in high salt females. In control males, 72.2% of vessels were surrounded by 10–40 um thick layer of collagen and in control females 91.9% of the vessels were surrounded by a significantly thinner (10–20 um thick) layer of collagen (p<.001). The majority (84%) of high salt males exhibited significantly thinner perivascular collagen layers (p<.001) than their control counterparts. The perivascular collagen layer of high salt females exhibited was not significantly different than control females. These studies suggest that there is a gender‐based difference in perivascular collagen deposition in the hypertrophied heart and that dietary sodium may influence the reorganization of perivascular collagen differently in males and females.