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Cardiac function in hearts isolated from a rat model deficient in mast cells

Departments of ¹Pharmaceutical Sciences, ²Surgery, ³Internal Medicine, and ⁴Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System, Little Rock, Arkansas; and ⁵Department of Physiology, Loyola University of Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, Maywood, Illinois

Submitted 6 August 2004 ; accepted in final form 16 September 2004

Several studies have examined the role of mast cells in the myocardial response to injury such as that caused by hypertension and ischemia-reperfusion. However, little is known about the influence of mast cells on normal myocardial structure and function. The present experiments examined cardiac function in Langendorff-perfused hearts isolated from 6- and 9-mo-old male mast cell-deficient (Ws/Ws) and mast cell-competent rats. A fluid-filled balloon catheter was used to measure left ventricular diastolic and systolic function at increasing preload volumes. At 6 mo of age, mast cell-deficient rats showed a slight cardiac hypertrophy (as monitored by heart weight and heart weight-to-body weight ratio) but no significant change in maximum observed systolic or diastolic function. In contrast, at 9 mo of age, the mast cell-deficient group showed no signs of hypertrophy but displayed a diastolic dysfunction characterized by decreased compliance without a significant decline in maximum observed basal –dP/dt_max. There were no significant differences in maximum observed values for measures of systolic function (developed pressure and +dP/dt_max). In summary, the results of this study in adult rats suggest that mast cells influence cardiac function in the absence of injury and that observed differences between mast cell-competent and -deficient animals vary with age. Thus it is important to consider these "physiological" actions and resulting changes in function when studying effects of insult in mast cell-deficient models.

compliance; diastolic dysfunction; Langendorff-perfused hearts

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