Cardiac hypertrophy or failure? - A systematic evaluation of the transverse aortic constriction model in C57BL/6NTac and C57BL/6J substrains

• Main Authors: Min Zi, Nicholas Stafford, Sukhpal Prehar, Florence Baudoin, Delvac Oceandy, Xin Wang, Thuy Bui, Mohamed Shaheen, Ludwig Neyses, Elizabeth J. Cartwright
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2019-12-01
• Series: Current Research in Physiology
• Subjects: C57BL/6; Cardiac hypertrophy; Heart failure; Transverse aortic constriction (TAC)
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266594411930001X

Background: The mouse model of transverse aortic constriction (TAC) has been widely used as a cardiac stress in the investigation of the molecular mechanisms of cardiac hypertrophy. Recently, the International Knockout Mouse Consortium has selected the C57BL/6NTac (BL/6N) mouse strain to generate null alleles for all mouse genes; however, a range of genetic and cardiac phenotypic differences have been reported between this substrain and the commonly used C57BL/6J (BL/6J) substrain. It has been reported by Garcia-Menendez and colleagues that 12-week C57BL/6NTac mice are susceptible to heart failure but little is known about the cardiac remodeling in this substrain as cardiac function progresses from compensation to decompensation. Methods: BL/6J and BL/6N mice were subjected to pressure overload via TAC. The impact of both age and duration of cardiac pressure overload induced by TAC on cardiac remodelling were systematically assessed. Results: Our data showed that BL/6N mice developed eccentric hypertrophy with age- and time-dependent deterioration in cardiac function, accompanied by considerable interstitial fibrosis. In contrast, BL/6J mice were more resilient to TAC-induced cardiac stress and developed variable cardiac phenotypes independent of age and the duration of pressure overload. This was likely due to the greater variability in pre-TAC aortic arch dimension as measured by echocardiography. In addition to increased expression of brain natriuretic peptide and collagen gene type 1 and 3, BL/6N mice also had greater angiotensin II type 2 receptor (AT2R) gene expression than BL/6J counterparts at baseline and after 2-weeks TAC, which may contribute to the exacerbated interstitial fibrosis. Conclusions: BL/6N and BL/6J mice have very different responses to TAC stimulation and these differences should be taken into consideration when using the substrains to investigate the mechanisms of hypertrophy and heart failure.