Objective To observe the time-series dynamic changes of myocardial fibrosis in spontaneously hypertensive rats.
METHODS: Forty-five 4-week-old SPF male spontaneously hypertensive rats and 35 Wistar Kyoto rats (WKY) were randomly divided into cages for 42 weeks and monitored by tail-cuff method at preset time points. Systolic blood pressure, echocardiography to monitor cardiac structure and function; rat heart samples were dissected and left ventricular mass index (LVMI) was calculated, Masson staining was used to observe left ventricular tissue fibrosis, and qRT-PCR was used to detect left ventricular tissue fibrosis. Related genes TGF-β1, collagen type I, collagen type III.
Results The systolic blood pressure of SHR increased rapidly from 6 to 12 weeks, and was significantly higher than that of WKY at 12 weeks (P<0.05). After that, the blood pressure of SHR stabilized and remained high. With the changes of blood pressure and rat age, SHR left ventricular structure-related indicators, interventricular septal thickness (IVST), left ventricular posterior wall thickness (LVPWT), and LVMI all showed characteristic dynamic changes. The collagen volume fraction (CVF) of SHR gradually increased with the age of mice, and was significantly higher than that of WKY at 12 weeks (P<0.05). The expression of SHR left ventricular myocardial fibrosis-related genes TGF-β1, collagen type I and collagen type III showed a first decrease and then an increase with the increase of mouse age, and were significantly increased after 32 weeks.
Conclusion SHR myocardial fibrosis develops and evolves continuously with the changes of rat age and blood pressure, and exhibits temporal and dynamic characteristic changes from structure to function, macroscopic and microscopic.