Timing of cardiomyocyte growth, maturation, and attrition in perinatal sheep

Studies in altricial rodents attribute dramatic changes in perinatal cardiomyocyte growth, maturation, and attrition to stimuli associated with birth. Our purpose was to determine whether birth is a critical trigger controlling perinatal cardiomyocyte growth, maturation and attrition in a precocial large mammal, sheep (Ovis aries). Hearts from 0-61 d postnatal lambs were dissected or enzymatically dissociated. Cardiomyocytes were measured by micromorphometry, cell cycle activity assessed by immunohistochemistry, and nuclear number counted after DNA staining. Integration of this new data with published fetal data from our laboratory demonstrate that a newly appreciated >30% decrease in myocyte number occurred in the last 10 d of gestation (P < 0.0005) concomitant with an increase in cleaved poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 (P < 0.05), indicative of apoptosis. Bisegmental linear regressions show that most changes in myocyte growth kinetics occur before birth (median = 15.2 d; P < 0.05). Right ventricular but not left ventricular cell number increases in the neonate, by 68% between birth and 60 d postnatal (P = 0.028). We conclude that in sheep few developmental changes in cardiomyocytes result from birth, excepting the different postnatal degrees of free wall hypertrophy between the ventricles. Furthermore, myocyte number is reduced in both ventricles immediately before term, but proliferation increases myocyte number in the neonatal right ventricle.