Resistance to store depletion-induced endothelial injury in rat lung after chronic heart failure
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 16, 2026
A Model of Reverse Vascular Remodeling in Pulmonary Hypertension Due to Left Heart Disease by Aortic Debanding in Rats
Published on: March 1, 2022
Diego F Alvarez1, Judy A King, Mary I Townsley
1Department of Physiology, MSB 3074, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL 36688, USA.
Rationale:
In chronic heart failure, the lung endothelial permeability response to angiotensin II or thapsigargin-induced store depletion is ablated, although the mechanisms are not understood.
Objectives:
To determine whether the ablated permeability response to store depletion during heart failure was due to impaired expression of store operated Ca2+ channels in lung endothelium.
Methods:
Heart failure was induced by aortocaval fistula in rats. Permeability was measured in isolated lungs using the filtration coefficient and a low Ca2+/Ca2+ add-back strategy to identify the component of the permeability response dependent on Ca2+ entry.
Main Results:
In fistulas, right ventricular mass and left ventricular end diastolic pressure were increased and left ventricular shortening fraction decreased compared with shams. Thapsigargin-induced store depletion increased lung endothelial permeability in shams, but not in fistulas. Permeability increased in both groups after the Ca2+ ionophore A23187 or 14,15-epoxyeicosatrienoic acid, independent of store depletion. A diacylglycerol analog had no impact on permeability. Increased distance between the endoplasmic reticulum and the plasmalemmal membrane was ruled out as a mechanism for the loss of the permeability response to store depletion. Endothelial expression of the endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ ATPase was not altered in fistulas compared with shams, whereas the store-operated canonical transient receptor potential channels 1, 3, and 4 were downregulated in extraalveolar vessel endothelium.
Conclusions:
We conclude that the adaptive mechanism limiting store depletion-induced endothelial lung injury in the aortocaval model of heart failure involves downregulation of store-operated Ca2+ channels.
