Abstract 652: Coronary Capillaries in Ischemic Congestive Heart Failure in Rats Exhibit Significant Morphological Disorder

Abstract

In ischemic congestive heart failure (CHF), the heart is damaged and undergoes compensatory remodeling, a pathological process associated with harmful effects. The goal of this study is to explore the manifestation of CHF by examining the morphological changes occurring in the coronary microvasculature in CHF versus normal rat hearts. We tested the hypothesis that coronary capillaries in rats with CHF exhibit significantly more morphological disorder than those in control rats. Methods: CHF was induced by aortic banding, ischemia/reperfusion injury two months post-banding (left coronary artery ligation for 30 minutes) and aortic debanding one month post-injury. Resin polymer containing fluorescent dye was injected into coronary vasculature of excised hearts. Muscle tissue was digested using NaOH to reveal vascular casts that were sputter coated with gold for imaging under a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). A total of 93 SEM images from 14 rats (7 control, 7 CHF) were analyzed for structural alignment using an automated gradient detection algorithm and circular statistics implemented using MATLAB software; Mean Vector Length (MVL) was calculated for each image as a measure of capillary organization (0<MVL<0. MVL->1 perfect alignment, MVL->0 random disarray). Results: CHF capillaries exhibit significantly more structural disorder than control (MVL 0.35±0.02 for 61 CHF, 0.58±0.02 for 32 control. p<0.01). Conclusions: Coronary capillaries in CHF rats exhibit significant abnormal morphological disarray that may impair blood flow hemodynamics and material and oxygen exchange in myocytes. Such disordered capillary remodeling could have detrimental consequences for the progression and prognosis of heart failure.