Pulmonary arterial banding in mice may be a suitable model for studies on ventricular mechanics in pediatric pulmonary arterial hypertension

BackgroundThe role of interventricular mechanics in pediatric pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and its relation to right ventricular (RV) dysfunction has been largely overlooked. Here, we characterize the impact of maintained pressure overload in the RV-pulmonary artery (PA) axis on myocardial strain and left ventricular (LV) mechanics in pediatric PAH patients in comparison to a preclinical PA-banding (PAB) mouse model. We hypothesize that the PAB mouse model mimics important aspects of interventricular mechanics of pediatric PAH and may be beneficial as a surrogate model for some longitudinal and interventional studies not possible in children.MethodsBalanced steady-state free precession (bSSFP) cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) images of 18 PAH and 17 healthy (control) pediatric subjects were retrospectively analyzed using CMR feature-tracking (FT) software to compute measurements of myocardial strain. Furthermore, myocardial tagged-CMR images were also analyzed for each subject using harmonic phase flow analysis to derive LV torsion rate. Within 48 h of CMR, PAH patients underwent right heart catheterization (RHC) for measurement of PA/RV pressures, and to compute RV end-systolic elastance (RV_E-es, a measure of load-independent contractility). Surgical PAB was performed on mice to induce RV pressure overload and myocardial remodeling. bSSFP-CMR, tagged CMR, and intra-cardiac catheterization were performed on 12 PAB and 9 control mice (Sham) 7 weeks after surgery with identical post-processing as in the aforementioned patient studies. RV_E-es was assessed via the single beat method.ResultsLV torsion rate was significantly reduced under hypertensive conditions in both PAB mice (p=0.004) and pediatric PAH patients (p<0.001). This decrease in LV torsion rate correlated significantly with a decrease in RV_E-es in PAB (r=0.91, p=0.05) and PAH subjects (r=0.51, p=0.04). In order to compare combined metrics of LV torsion rate and strain parameters principal component analysis (PCA) was used. PCA revealed grouping of PAH patients with PAB mice and control subjects with Sham mice. Similar to LV torsion rate, LV global peak circumferential, radial, and longitudinal strain were significantly (p<0.05) reduced under hypertensive conditions in both PAB mice and children with PAH.ConclusionsThe PAB mouse model resembles PAH-associated myocardial mechanics and may provide a potential model to study mechanisms of RV/LV interdependency.

Automated summary

In both pediatric PAH patients and PAB mice, LV torsion rate was significantly reduced under hypertensive conditions and correlated with RV_E-es. Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed grouping of PAH patients with PAB mice, indicating the potential of the PAB mouse model for studying RV/LV interdependency mechanisms.