Title Information
Title
Age-Associated Arrhythmogenic Substrate and Trigger in a Rabbit Model of Cardiac Aging
Name: Personal
Name Part
Cooper, Leroy Leon
Role
Role Term: Text
creator
Origin Information
Copyright Date
2013
Physical Description
Extent
19, 205 p.
digitalOrigin
born digital
Note
Thesis (Ph.D. -- Brown University (2013)
Name: Personal
Name Part
Koren, g
Role
Role Term: Text
Director
Name: Personal
Name Part
Koren, Gideon
Role
Role Term: Text
Director
Name: Personal
Name Part
Mende, Ulrike
Role
Role Term: Text
Reader
Name: Personal
Name Part
Harrington, Elizabeth
Role
Role Term: Text
Reader
Name: Personal
Name Part
Sedivy, John
Role
Role Term: Text
Reader
Name: Personal
Name Part
Lakatta, Edward
Role
Role Term: Text
Reader
Name: Corporate
Name Part
Brown University. BIOMED: Molecular Pharmacology, Physiology, and Biotechnology
Role
Role Term: Text
sponsor
Genre (aat)
theses
Abstract
Aging is associated with an increased risk of arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death (SCD). Yet, much remains unknown about the mechanisms that underlie the age-related, pro-arrhythmic changes in the mammalian heart at the cellular and molecular levels and how they manifest as increased incidence of cardiac arrhythmia. Here, we used a physiologically-relevant aging rabbit model to test the hypothesis that the consequences of cellular aging contribute to in vivo dysfunction that enhances substrate and trigger for arrhythmias in the aging heart. In vivo and ex vivo studies showed that aging rabbits have reduced aortic and diastolic and systolic myocardial compliances. In addition, we observed an age-related slowing of ventricular and His-Purkinje conduction, altered conduction anisotropy, and greater ventricular fibrillation (VF) inducibility in old rabbits. Old rabbit hearts were physiologically hypertrophied (increased wall thickness) and absent of pathological hypertrophy markers. Aging was also associated with an increase in myocardial fibrosis, which along with an alteration to myofibrillar orientation and myocardial sheet structure, created anatomical substrates important to maintain VF. Aberrant calcium (Ca2+) handling has been shown to be an important contributor to the electrical and contractile dysfunction that may provide triggers for arrhythmic activity. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying abnormal Ca2+ handling in the aging heart remain poorly understood. We found that cardiomyocytes from old rabbit hearts were characterized by an increased rate of reactive oxygen species production by mildly depolarized mitochondria leading to the thiol-oxidation of RyRs, which underlies the hyperactivity of RyRs and thereby shortened refractoriness of Ca2+ release in cardiomyocytes from the aging heart. The major age-related changes in Ca2+ homeostasis manifested at the sarcolemma as potentially malignant spontaneous calcium waves under β-adrenergic stimulation, which could trigger extrasystolic activity that would lead to initiation of arrhythmias. This novel finding demonstrates a mechanism that is involved with age progression and its relation to alterations in Ca2+ cycling as it pertains to increased arrhythmogenic potential in the aging heart. Thus, aging enhances the development of arrhythmogenic triggers and substrate to maintain arrhythmias in the heart, promoting a higher incidence of age-associated SCD.
Subject
Topic
senescence
Subject
Topic
calcium dynamics
Subject
Topic
ryanodine receptor
Subject (FAST) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/953493")
Topic
Heart
Subject (FAST) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/815084")
Topic
Arrhythmia
Subject (FAST) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/800293")
Topic
Aging
Subject (FAST) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/844035")
Topic
Calcium
Subject (FAST) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/1102626")
Topic
Ryanodine--Receptors
Record Information
Record Content Source (marcorg)
RPB
Record Creation Date (encoding="iso8601")
20131219
Language
Language Term: Code (ISO639-2B)
eng
Language Term: Text
English
Identifier: DOI
10.7301/Z0D21VX9
Access Condition: rights statement (href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/")
In Copyright
Access Condition: restriction on access
Collection is open for research.
Type of Resource (primo)
dissertations