title: Prenatal nicotine exposure results in the myocardial fibrosis in the adult male offspring rats.
abstract: Our previous study showed that prenatal nicotine exposure could increase the heart rate of adult male offspring rats, but little is known about the mechanism. The aim of this study was to investigate the mechanism. Nicotine was subcutaneously administered to pregnant rats at a dose of 1.5mgkg(-1) from the gestational days 3-21; the control group received the same volume of saline by the same route. The offsprings' heart weight, ejection function, ultrastructure, and blood hormones were determined. The present study exhibited that prenatal nicotine exposure significantly decreased the offsprings' heart and body weight at gestational day 21 and at day 15 after birth, but had no effect on the heart and body weight at 90 days after birth. The hearts were fibrosed in the nicotine exposed male offsprings, and the heart ejection functions of the nicotine male offsprings at 90 days after birth were decreased, including SV, FS and EF. In addition, prenatal nicotine exposure significantly increased the offspring's blood adrenaline and norepinephrine levels. These data suggest that the increased heart rate caused by prenatal nicotine exposure may be a result of myocardial fibrosis, which leads to heart function decreases, and these data imply a myocardial fibrosis risk of prenatal nicotine exposure.
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine and Nursing sciences, Huzhou University, Huzhou, China. Electronic address: yufeng@hutc.zj.cn.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Changxing People's Hospital, China.
authors.forename: Aiqiang
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine and Nursing sciences, Huzhou University, Huzhou, China.
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine and Nursing sciences, Huzhou University, Huzhou, China.
authors.forename: Yuexia
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of Suzhou Industrial Park, Suzhou 215021, China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, China.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine and Nursing sciences, Huzhou University, Huzhou, China.
authors.forename: Xiren
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Gao
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001835:Body Weight / Q000187:drug effects; D003094:Collagen / Q000378:metabolism; D004452:Echocardiography; D004837:Epinephrine / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000187:drug effects*; D008297:Male; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D009206:Myocardium / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D009538:Nicotine / Q000633:toxicity*; D009638:Norepinephrine / Q000097:blood; D009929:Organ Size / Q000187:drug effects; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects / Q000097:blood / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley
chemical_list: D009538:Nicotine; D003094:Collagen; D009638:Norepinephrine; D004837:Epinephrine
keywords: Myocardial fibrosis; Nicotine; Prenatal; Programming