Septic Cardiac Remodeling: A New Concept in Cardiac Dysfunction Induced by Experimental Sepsis

Septic cardiomyopathy is recognized as an acute, transient, and reversible condition. However, septic insult may induce latent changes characteristic of cardiac remodeling, with future consequences. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate the morphological and functional cardiac changes in the acute and subacute phases (with 7-day follow-up) in male Wistar rats subjected to experimental sepsis using a cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) model. In the acute phase, the animals underwent echocardiographic assessment at baseline and 48 h after the induction of sepsis. In the subacute 7 days follow-up, animals were allocated in control and sepsis groups. After this period, the animals underwent echocardiographic assessment, followed by euthanasia, papillary muscle testing, and subsequent morphometric and biochemical analyses. Fecal samples from six animals per group were collected at baseline and after 7 days for microbiota analysis. In the acute phase, echocardiographic assessment revealed that, following sepsis, animals exhibited reduced systolic function. In the subacute 7 days follow-up, both echocardiogram and papillary muscles revealed cardiac dysfunction in the sepsis group. Cardiomyocyte cross-sectional area and collagen content were significantly greater in the sepsis group compared with that in the control group. Analysis of maximal enzymatic activities involved in cardiac energy metabolism and oxidative stress biomarkers revealed no significant differences between groups. Considering microbiota assessment, beta diversity analysis revealed significant differences between septic animals and controls. In conclusion, sepsis was associated with persistent systolic/diastolic dysfunction, cardiomyocyte hypertrophy, and fibrosis after 7 days. These data suggest that septic cardiomyopathy should not be considered merely an acute, transient, and reversible condition in this experimental context.