Changes in the heart of neonatal rats after cryptosporidial gastroenteritis of different degrees of severity

• Published in: Journal of evolutionary biochemistry and physiology Vol. 49; no. 5; pp. 509 - 518
• Main Authors: Anatskaya, O. V., Matveev, I. V., Sidorenko, N. V., Kharchenko, M. V., Kropotov, A. V., Vinogradov, A. E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer US 01.09.2013; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Animal Physiology; Biochemistry; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Cardiovascular disease; Evolutionary Biology; Gastroenterology; Heart; Infections; Life Sciences; Morphological Basics for Evolution of Functions; Rodents; cardiomyocytes; neonatal infectious gastroenteritis; atrial septum; myosin heavy chain isoforms; ontogenetic programming; cardiovascular diseases; foramen ovale
• ISSN: 0022-0930; 1608-3202
• DOI: 10.1134/S0022093013050071

Disturbances at the childhood age increase risk of appearance of cardiovascular disease decades later. The nature of this interconnection called ontogenetic programming is not completely understood. Valuable source of knowledge about mechanisms of ontogenetic programming are data of interspecies study of biology of the body life cycles understanding on the triggers and mechanisms are the cross-species comparative data on life-cycle and heart aerobic capacity. Taken into account the interspecies differences, these data allow finding the correct direction of experimental investigations. Results of studies of almost 100 homoiothermal species have shown the slow growth and a high loading on the heart at postnatal development to decrease its aerobic capacity in adults. Basing on these data, we suggested that the neonatal infectious gastroenteritis causing tachyarrhythmia, malabsorption, and the growth deceleration might lead to pathologic changes in the heart. Our task was to evaluate the effect of cryptosporidial gastroenteritis of different degrees of severity on heart of neonatal rats. By using methods of Real-Time PCR, immunocytochemistry, image analysis, and study of atrial septum (ostuim primum), we have established that a gradual increase of intensity of infestation with Cryptosoridium parvum oocysts causes sharp changes corresponding to “all-or-nothing” response. At a weak infestation the atrial septum was close (like in control), while significant changes in expression of isoforms of heavy chains of α- and β- myosin were absent. At the intermediate and severe infestation, in the atrial septum the foramen ovale was visualized and there were observed the cardiac atrophy and a strong shift of ration of expression of myosin heavy chains toward the low-velocity of β-chain. Thus, by disturbing the frequency-strength ratios and causing the outflow of resources from the formed heart, the neonatal cryptosporidiosis produces pathological changes of the organ molecular and anatomical structure. Our results can be interest to evolutionary biologists and physicians, as they show the importance of knowledge of evolutionary-comparative investigations for search for novel risk factors of heart diseases and demonstrate interconnection between gastroenteritis, pathology of atrial septum, and a change of composition of the main contractile proteins in cardiomyocytes.