Maladaptive remodeling of cardiac myocyte shape begins long before failure in hypertension

Progression to failure in hypertension is associated with ventricular dilation, excessive myocyte lengthening, and an increase in myocyte length/width ratio. The temporal development of these changes in relation to impaired pump performance is unknown. We examined isolated myocytes from 1- to 12-month-old spontaneously hypertensive heart failure (SHHF) rats who develop heart failure at approximately 24 months of age. Left ventricular myocyte cross-sectional area reached a maximum of approximately 350 to 400 microm2 at 3 months of age and did not change significantly thereafter. Nonetheless, LV systolic wall stress, a known stimulus for myocyte transverse growth, increased progressively between 3 and 12 months of age. Unlike the situation in normally aging rats with stable body mass, myocyte length in SHHF rats continued to increase with aging (P<0.05 from 9 to 12 months of age). In summary, (1) left ventricular myocyte transverse growth reaches an upper limit by 3 months of age although systolic wall stress continues to rise; and (2) cell length is significantly increased by 12 months of age. This study suggests that maladaptive remodeling of cardiac myocyte shape begins long before pump failure in hypertension. Additionally, it appears that the left ventricle may be robbed of an important adaptive mechanism to normalize wall stress (eg, myocyte transverse growth) early in the progression to failure.