Structural adaptation of the rat left ventricle in response to changes in pressure and volume loads

Female Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKY) and spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) were used to explore the structural changes of cardiac dimensions in connection with a sustained hyperkinetic circulation, as induced by pregnancy or thyroxine administration. Cardiac design was assessed by recordings of the diastolic left ventricular pressure-volume relationships in isolated arrested hearts. Left ventricular weight: body weight and end-diastolic volume (EDV) for given end-diastolic pressures (EDP), were both increased about 50% in control SHR, with a marginal reduction of the wall:lumen ratio (w:ri) compared with control WKY. During the hyperkinetic circulatory states of pregnancy and hyperthyroidism, EDV was in WKY increased about 30% and 50%, respectively, with concomitant w:ri reductions. In SHR pregnancy did not significantly alter left ventricular dimensions, whereas EDV was increased by about 20% in hyperthyroid SHR. Thus, the rat left ventricle can, within 3 weeks, markedly alter not only the wall mass but also, and independently, the luminal design in response to different haemodynamic interventions. Early established SHR hypertension is characterized mainly by eccentric left ventricular hypertrophy, despite the elevated arterial pressure. Volume overloads in WKY due to pregnancy or hyperthyroidism can induce marked structural widening of the left ventricle. In SHR these structural luminal changes were only minor, perhaps because considerable eccentric hypertrophy is already present. Such a structural cardiac enlargement may allow delivery of an increased stroke volume for a given myocardial fibre shortening.