title: Pathological effects of chronic myocardial infarction on peripheral neurons mediating cardiac neurotransmission.
abstract: To determine whether chronic myocardial infarction (MI) induces structural and neurochemical changes in neurons within afferent and efferent ganglia mediating cardiac neurotransmission.
  
  
  
  Neuronal somata in i) right atrial (RAGP) and ii) ventral interventricular ganglionated plexi (VIVGP), iii) stellate ganglia (SG) and iv) T1-2 dorsal root ganglia (DRG) bilaterally derived from normal (n=8) vs. chronic MI (n=8) porcine subjects were studied. We examined whether the morphology and neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) expression in soma of RAGP, VIVGP, DRG and SG neurons were altered as a consequence of chronic MI. In DRG, we also examined immunoreactivity of calcitonin gene related peptide (CGRP), a marker of afferent neurons. Chronic MI increased neuronal size and nNOS immunoreactivity in VIVGP (but not RAGP), as well as in the SG bilaterally. Across these ganglia, the increase in neuronal size was more pronounced in nNOS immunoreactive neurons. In the DRG, chronic MI also caused neuronal enlargement, and increased CGRP immunoreactivity. Further, DRG neurons expressing both nNOS and CGRP were increased in MI animals compared to controls, and represented a shift from double negative neurons.
  
  
  
  Chronic MI impacts diverse elements within the peripheral cardiac neuraxis. That chronic MI imposes such widespread, diverse remodeling of the peripheral cardiac neuraxis must be taken into consideration when contemplating neuronal regulation of the ischemic heart.
authors.affiliation: UCLA Cardiac Arrhythmia Center and Neurocardiology Research Center of Excellence, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Radiology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Keijiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.affiliation: UCLA Cardiac Arrhythmia Center and Neurocardiology Research Center of Excellence, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Radiology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. Electronic address: oajijola@mednet.ucla.edu.
authors.forename: Olujimi A
authors.initials: OA
authors.lastname: Ajijola
authors.affiliation: UCLA Cardiac Arrhythmia Center and Neurocardiology Research Center of Excellence, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Radiology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Aliotta
authors.affiliation: UCLA Cardiac Arrhythmia Center and Neurocardiology Research Center of Excellence, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Radiology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: J Andrew
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Armour
authors.affiliation: UCLA Cardiac Arrhythmia Center and Neurocardiology Research Center of Excellence, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Radiology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Jeffrey L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Ardell
authors.affiliation: UCLA Cardiac Arrhythmia Center and Neurocardiology Research Center of Excellence, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Radiology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Kalyanam
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shivkumar
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015740:Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide / Q000378:metabolism; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005727:Ganglia, Spinal / Q000378:metabolism*; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000378:metabolism*; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism*; D052248:Nitric Oxide Synthase Type I / Q000378:metabolism; D013233:Stellate Ganglion / Q000378:metabolism; D013552:Swine; D009435:Synaptic Transmission / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D052248:Nitric Oxide Synthase Type I; D015740:Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide
keywords: Autonomic nervous system; CGRP; Chronic myocardial infarction; Dorsal root ganglia; Intrinsic cardiac nervous system; Stellate ganglion; nNOS