Submitted on May 14, 2004
Accepted on December 17, 2004
Aortic banding in rat as a model to investigate malnutrition associated to heart failure
Cecile Helies-Toussaint1*, Christophe Moinard2, Carole Rasmusen2, Imene Tabbi-Anneni1, Luc Cynober2, and Alain Grynberg1
1 Lipides membranaires et Fonctions Cardiovasculaires, Faculte de Pharmacie, INRA - UMR 1154, Chatenay-Malabry, France
2 EA 2498, Faculte de Pharmacie, Laboratoire de Biologie de la Nutrition, Paris, France
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: helies{at}jouy.inra.fr.
Heart failure is a severe pathology displaying a dramatic occurrence increase in developed countries, due to the increase in population's average age and patients with chronic heart disease survival time. This pathology is associated with severe malnutrition, which worsens the prognosis. While the cachexia associated to chronic heart failure is a well known complication, there is no reference animal model of malnutrition related to heart failure. This study was designed to evaluate the nutritional status of rats in a model of loss of cardiac function obtained by ascending aortic banding. Cardiac overload led to the development of cardiac hypertrophy which decompensates to heart failure, with increased brain natriuretic peptide levels. The rats displayed hepatic dysfunction and an associated renal hypotrophy and renal failure, evidenced by the alteration in renal function markers such as citrullinemia, creatininemia and uremia. Malnutrition has been evidenced by the alteration of protein and amino acid metabolism. A muscular atrophy with decreased protein content and increased amino acid concentrations in both plasma and muscle was observed. These rats with heart failure displayed a multi-organ failure and malnutrition, reflecting the clinical situation of human chronic heart failure.
