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Chronic hypoestrogenism promotes apoptotic death in cardiac myocytes of the left ventricular myocardium
Author(s) -
Liskova Yuliya Vladimirovna,
Kovalevskaya Elena A,
Salikova Svetlana P,
Stadnikov Alexander A,
Blinova Elena V
Publication year - 2013
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.27.1_supplement.1085.3
Subject(s) - medicine , atrophy , hypoestrogenism , myocyte , endocrinology , immunocytochemistry , cardiology , apoptosis , ejection fraction , heart failure , anatomy , chemistry , hormone , biochemistry
This study characterizes the remodeling of the left ventricular (LV) myocardium in rats with surgically‐induced hypoestrogenism (hypo‐E). The research was done on 15 adult outbred female rats: 10 rats underwent bilateral ovariectomy, while 5 rats served as a control. The LV myocardium was examined with light microscopy, immunocytochemistry (Ñas‐3 and Bcl‐2 protein expression) and morphometry on 2, 6 and 12 months (m) after the surgery. We found that the volume fraction of myocardial interstitial tissue was significantly increased in all hypo‐E rats (38.9±5.4% at 2m, 48.8±6.4% at 6m, 35.3±5.3% at 12m vs. 15.6±2.6% in control, đ<0.05). At the same time, after an initial increase in cardiac myocyte (CM) diameter at 6m of hypo‐E (9.96±1.57μm vs. 8.68±1.64 μm in control, đ<0.05), the average CM diameter was reduced to 7.6±1.7 μm at 12m, suggestive of CM atrophy. The latter observation was further confirmed by the marked decrease in CM volume fraction in these rats (64.6±4.8% vs. 84.2±2.51% in control). Furthermore, the progressive reduction of Bcl‐2 + CM in hypo‐E rats (0.21±0.04% at 6m and 0.17±0.01%, at 12m vs. 0.6±0.03% at 2m, p<0.05) in concert with the increase of Cas‐3 + cells (0.4±0.01% at 6m and 0.38±0.05%, at 12m vs. 0.22±0.03% at 2m, p<0.05) has suggested the gradual increase in CM apoptosis. Thus, our data demonstrated that chronic hypo‐E in rats was associated with a significant increase in apoptotic death of LV myocytes.