Atrial Fibrillation Begets Atrial Fibrillation in Small Animals: Characterization of New Rat Model of Spontaneous Atrial Fibrillation.

IF 3.9 3区工程技术 Q2 BIOCHEMISTRY & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

Biomedicines Pub Date : 2025-03-13 DOI:10.3390/biomedicines13030704

Alkora Ioana Balan, Vasile Bogdan Halaţiu, Dan Alexandru Cozac, Emilian Comșulea, Cosmin Constantin Mutu, Ioana Aspru, Delia Păcurar, Claudia Bănescu, Marcel Perian, Alina Scridon

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Abstract

Background/Objectives: We previously described a rat model of AF induced by long-term transesophageal atrial burst pacing. Here, we further characterize this model by exploring arrhythmia inducibility, spontaneous AF occurrence, and related autonomic and molecular changes. Methods: Twelve adult male Wistar rats were randomized into two groups: control (n = 5) and AF (n = 7). The rats in the AF group underwent 10 days of transesophageal atrial pacing. In the control rats, the same protocol was mimicked. Spontaneous AF occurrence and heart rate variability (HRV) were evaluated before, during, and after stimulation. Left atrial RNA levels of Hcn1, Hcn2, Hcn4, and Pitx2 were evaluated. Results: In AF, no animal presented spontaneous AF before stimulation. After stimulation initiation, all AF rats presented spontaneous AF (p = 0.08). In the AF rats, HRV analysis revealed a progressive increase in the standard deviation of the RR intervals after atrial stimulation initiation (p < 0.01). The left atrial RNA levels of Hcn4 were higher (p = 0.03) and Pitx2 levels were lower (p = 0.02) in the AF rats compared to the control group. Conclusions: This study validates our previous data and confirms the occurrence of spontaneous AF following long-term atrial pacing in rats. Relatively increased parasympathetic modulation and changes in the atrial expression of Hcn4, encoding for I_f, and Pitx2 likely play critical mechanistic roles in this model.

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心房颤动引发小动物心房颤动：自发性心房颤动大鼠新模型的表征。

背景/目的：我们之前描述了一个长期经食管心房爆裂起搏诱导的AF大鼠模型。在这里，我们通过探索心律失常的诱发性、自发性房颤的发生以及相关的自主神经和分子变化来进一步表征该模型。方法：12只成年雄性Wistar大鼠随机分为对照组（n = 5）和AF组（n = 7）， AF组经食管心房起搏10 d。在对照大鼠中，同样的程序被模仿。在刺激前、刺激中和刺激后分别评估自发性房颤发生率和心率变异性（HRV）。评价左房RNA Hcn1、Hcn2、Hcn4、Pitx2水平。结果：在AF中，没有动物在刺激前出现自发性AF。刺激开始后，所有AF大鼠均出现自发性AF （p = 0.08）。在房颤大鼠中，HRV分析显示心房刺激开始后RR间隔的标准差逐渐增加（p < 0.01）。与对照组相比，房颤大鼠左心房RNA Hcn4水平升高（p = 0.03）， Pitx2水平降低（p = 0.02）。结论：本研究验证了我们之前的数据，证实了大鼠长期心房起搏后自发性房颤的发生。相对增加的副交感神经调节和心房中编码If和Pitx2的Hcn4表达的变化可能在该模型中发挥关键的机制作用。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Biomedicines Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology-General Biochemistry,Genetics and Molecular Biology

CiteScore

5.20

自引率

8.50%

发文量

2823

审稿时长

8 weeks

期刊介绍： Biomedicines (ISSN 2227-9059; CODEN: BIOMID) is an international, scientific, open access journal on biomedicines published quarterly online by MDPI.