title: Short‑term vagal nerve stimulation improves left ventricular function following chronic heart failure in rats.
abstract: Increasing numbers of animal and clinical investigations have demonstrated the effectiveness of long-term electrical vagal nerve stimulation (VNS) on chronic heart failure (CHF). The present study investigated the effects of short-term VNS on the hemodynamics of cardiac remodeling and cardiac excitation-contraction coupling (ECP) in an animal model of CHF following a large myocardial infarction. At 3 weeks subsequent to ligation of the left coronary artery, the surviving rats were randomized into vagal and sham-stimulated groups. The right vagal nerve of the CHF rats was stimulated for 72 h. The vagal nerve was stimulated with rectangular pulses of 40 ms duration at 1 Hz, 5 V. The treated rats, compared with the untreated rats, had significantly higher left ventricular ejection fraction (54.86 ± 9.73, vs. 45.60 ± 5.51%; P=0.025) and left ventricular fractional shortening (25.31 ± 6.30, vs. 15.42 ± 8.49%; P=0.013), and lower levels of brain natriuretic peptide (10.07 ± 2.63, vs. 19.95 ± 5.22 ng/ml; P=0.001). The improvement in cardiac pumping function was accompanied by a decrease in left ventricular end diastolic volume (1.11 ± 0.50, vs. 1.54 ± 0.57 cm(3); P=0.032) and left ventricular end systolic volume (0.50 ± 0.28, vs. 0.87 ± 0.36 cm(3); P=0.007). Furthermore, the expression levels of ryanodine receptor type 2 (RyR2) and sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium adenosine triphosphatase (SERCA2) were significantly higher in the treated rats compared with the untreated rats (P=0.011 and P=0.001 for RyR2 and SERCA2, respectively). Therefore, VNS was beneficial to the CHF rats through the prevention of cardiac remodeling and improvement of cardiac ECP.
authors: Department of Geriatrics, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, Liaoning 110004, P.R. China.
authors: Yan
authors: Y
authors: Li
authors: Department of Cardiology Medicine, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, Liaoning 110004, P.R. China.
authors: Yan-Hua
authors: YH
authors: Xuan
authors: Department of Cardiology Medicine, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, Liaoning 110004, P.R. China.
authors: Shuang-Shuang
authors: SS
authors: Liu
authors: Department of Cardiology Medicine, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, Liaoning 110004, P.R. China.
authors: Jing
authors: J
authors: Dong
authors: Department of Cardiology Medicine, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, Liaoning 110004, P.R. China.
authors: Jia-Ying
authors: JY
authors: Luo
authors: Department of Cardiology Medicine, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, Liaoning 110004, P.R. China.
authors: Zhi-Jun
authors: ZJ
authors: Sun
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001794:Blood Pressure; D002908:Chronic Disease; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D056966:Excitation Contraction Coupling / Q000502:physiology; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D006339:Heart Rate; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D006439:Hemodynamics; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D008297:Male; D020097:Natriuretic Peptide, Brain / Q000097:blood; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D019837:Ryanodine Receptor Calcium Release Channel / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D053498:Sarcoplasmic Reticulum Calcium-Transporting ATPases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D055536:Vagus Nerve Stimulation; D016277:Ventricular Function, Left / Q000502:physiology*; D020257:Ventricular Remodeling
chemical_list: C506948:Atp2a2 protein, rat; D019837:Ryanodine Receptor Calcium Release Channel; D020097:Natriuretic Peptide, Brain; D053498:Sarcoplasmic Reticulum Calcium-Transporting ATPases