RESEARCH ARTICLE
Variability in Interbeat Duration Influences Myocardial Contractility in Rat Cardiac Trabeculae
Carlos A. A Torres1, 2, Kenneth D Varian1, Paul M. L Janssen1, *
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2008Volume: 2
First Page: 100
Last Page: 104
Publisher ID: TOCMJ-2-100
DOI: 10.2174/1874192400802010100
Article History:
Received Date: 10/10/2008Revision Received Date: 27/10/2008
Acceptance Date: 28/10/2008
Electronic publication date: 21/11/2008
Collection year: 2008
open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
There is an intense search for positive inotropic strategies. It is well known that the interbeat duration is a critical determinant of cardiac contractility. Generally, when frequency increases, so does contractile strength. We hypothesize that the beat-to-beat variability at a given heart rate also modulates cardiac contractility. To test this hypothesis, thin, uniform rat cardiac trabeculae were isolated from the right ventricle and stimulated to isometrically contract, alternating between fixed steady state versus variable inter-beat intervals (same total number of beats in each period). Trabeculae were stimulated at 4 Hz with interbeat variation between 20 and 120% (n=17). In a second series of experiments trabeculae were stimulated at 3 different physiologic frequencies with a 40% interbeat variation. Fixed rate response was measured before and after each variable period and average force was calculated. In order to investigate the mechanism underlying the changes in contractility we used iontophoretically loaded bis-fura-2 salt to monitor intracellular calcium transients. We observed no significant change in force at 4 Hz (n=17), and 6 Hz (n=6) between fixed and variable pacing but observed a significant, 10% increase in contractile strength at 8 Hz (from 15.1 to 16.5 mN/mm2, p<0.05, n=6). Our results show that under certain conditions, by simply introducing variation in the beat-to-beat duration without affecting the number of beats per minute, a positive inotropic effect with corresponding changes in the calcium transients can be generated.
