The effect of chronic renal failure on cardiac function: an experimental study with a rat model

Chronic renal failure (CRF) is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, and recently much interest has focused on the cardiorenal syndrome. However, the relationship between CRF and cardiac function is not fully understood. We investigated the effect of CRF on cardiac function in a rat model.

Male Wistar rats (7 weeks old) were randomly divided into the following two groups: (1) control group (n = 5) and (2) CRF group (n = 18). Rats in the CRF group received an adenine suspension orally for 10 days. Measurements of blood pressure and echocardiography were performed at baseline and after 17 weeks (24 weeks old). To investigate the possible effect of hypertension on cardiac function, we analyzed rats in the CRF group with and without hypertension (systolic blood pressure ≥ or <130 mmHg at 17 weeks) separately.

Creatinine was significantly higher in the CRF group than in the control group. At 17 weeks, rats in the CRF group showed preserved systolic function but diastolic dysfunction with decreased mitral early diastolic filling velocity and annular velocity. In both the normotensive and hypertensive CRF rats, early diastolic mitral annular velocity was significantly lower than in the control group. Myocardial fibrosis was not found in all groups, but myocardial apoptosis was found in the CRF group irrespective of the presence or absence of hypertension.

The adenine-induced CRF rat model developed renal dysfunction and left ventricular diastolic dysfunction independent of the presence of hypertension.