TY - JOUR
T1 - Getting to the heart of the matter
T2 - Age-related changes in diastolic heart function in the longest-lived rodent, the naked mole rat
AU - Grimes, Kelly M.
AU - Lindsey, Merry L.
AU - Gelfond, Jonathan A.L.
AU - Buffenstein, Rochelle
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by grants to M.L.L. (the Max and Minnie Tomerlin Voelcker Fund and the Veteran’s Administration [Merit]) and R.B. (American Federation for Aging Research Breakthroughs in Gerontology, the Glenn Foundation, and the National Institute on Aging/National Institutes of Health [AG022891-01]).
PY - 2012/4
Y1 - 2012/4
N2 - The naked mole rat is an extremely long-lived (>31 years) small (35 g) rodent. Moreover, it maintains good health for most of its long life. We hypothesized that naked mole rats also show attenuated cardiac aging. With age, cardiac muscle can become less compliant, causing a decline in early diastolic filling (E) and a compensatory increase in atrial contraction-induced late filling (A). This results in decreased left ventricular E/A ratio. Doppler imaging showed no significant differences in E/A ratios (p = .48) among old (18-20 years) breeders and nonbreeders despite differences in estrogen levels. A cross-sectional study of 1-to 20-year-old naked mole rats (n = 76) revealed that E/A ratios declined with age in females (n = 40; p = .002) but not in males (n = 36; p = 0.45). Despite this, neither gender shows increased morbidity or mortality with age. These findings suggest that, notwithstanding the previously observed high lipid peroxidation in heart tissue, NMRs must possess mechanisms to stave off progression to fatal cardiac disease.
AB - The naked mole rat is an extremely long-lived (>31 years) small (35 g) rodent. Moreover, it maintains good health for most of its long life. We hypothesized that naked mole rats also show attenuated cardiac aging. With age, cardiac muscle can become less compliant, causing a decline in early diastolic filling (E) and a compensatory increase in atrial contraction-induced late filling (A). This results in decreased left ventricular E/A ratio. Doppler imaging showed no significant differences in E/A ratios (p = .48) among old (18-20 years) breeders and nonbreeders despite differences in estrogen levels. A cross-sectional study of 1-to 20-year-old naked mole rats (n = 76) revealed that E/A ratios declined with age in females (n = 40; p = .002) but not in males (n = 36; p = 0.45). Despite this, neither gender shows increased morbidity or mortality with age. These findings suggest that, notwithstanding the previously observed high lipid peroxidation in heart tissue, NMRs must possess mechanisms to stave off progression to fatal cardiac disease.
KW - Cardiac imaging
KW - Diastolic dysfunction
KW - Hypogonadic
KW - Left ventricular function
KW - Naked mole rat
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U2 - 10.1093/gerona/glr222
DO - 10.1093/gerona/glr222
M3 - Article
C2 - 22367435
AN - SCOPUS:84859072242
SN - 1079-5006
VL - 67 A
SP - 384
EP - 394
JO - Journals of Gerontology - Series A Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences
JF - Journals of Gerontology - Series A Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences
IS - 4
ER -