Role of diastolic properties in the transition to failure in a mouse model of the cardiac dilatation

Although the physiological states of hypertrophic remodeling and congestive heart failure have been intensively studied, less is known about the transition from one to the other. The use of genetically engineered murine models of heart failure has proven valuable in characterizing the progression of remodeling and its ultimate decompensation to failure. Mice deficient in the cytoskeletal muscle LIM-only protein (MLP) are known to present with a clinical picture of dilated cardiomyopathy and transition to failure as adults. Longitudinal high-field magnetic resonance (MR) cardiac imaging provided a time course of remodeling where an improvement in ejection fraction and stroke volume (15- vs. 31-wk MLP-/- mice; P < 0.0001) was temporally concurrent with an abrupt phase of end-diastolic chamber dilatation. Hemodynamic analysis conducted throughout that dilatation phase showed improved ratio of maximum first derivative of pressure to end-diastolic pressure (dP/dt(max)/EDP; 15- vs. 31-wk MLP-/- mice; P < 0.0005), ratio of minimum first derivative of pressure to EDP (dP/dt(min)/EDP; 15- vs. 31-wk MLP-/- mice; P < 0.003), and developed pressure (15- vs. 31-wk MLP-/- mice; P < 0.0001) levels in the MLP-/- mice. Computational modeling techniques were used to estimate the EDP volume relationship, revealing that although MLP hearts possess a stiffer stress-strain relation, chamber compliance increased as a function of dilatation. This detailed physiological characterization during a phase of rapid anatomical remodeling suggests that systolic function in the MLP-/- mice may temporarily improve as a result of alterations in chamber compliance, which are mediated by dilatation. In turn, a balance may exist between exploiting the Frank-Starling mechanism and altering chamber compliance that maintains function in the absence of hypertrophic growth. Though initially compensatory, this process may exhaust itself and consequently transition to a maladaptive course.