TY - JOUR
T1 - Cardiovascular aging in syrian hamsters
T2 - Similarities between normal aging and disease
AU - Ottenweller, John E.
AU - Tapp, Walter N.
AU - Chen, Thomas S.
AU - Natelson, Benjamin H.
N1 - Funding Information:
‘This research was supported by Veterans Administration Medical Research Funds, and an NHLBI gran #26760 to “T.W e wish to gratefully acknowledge the essential technical contributions of Debra Creighton, Cynthia Young, John Cook, and John Yavorsky to the completion of this project. We also wish to thank Margaret Wepman for her secretarial assistance. *From the Primate Neurobehavioral Unit (lUA), VA Medical Center, East Orange, NJ 07019, and the Departments Of Neurosciences and PathologY, New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ 07103, [J.S.A.
PY - 1987
Y1 - 1987
N2 - The functional status of the cardiovascular system in health and cardiomyopathic (CM) hamsters was assessed throughout their lives by measuring heart weight and fluid in the pleural and peritoneal cavities. An index of cardiovascular age was developed from a multiple regression model of changes in these variables with chronological age. This index showed parallel changes in healthy and CM hamsters with increasing age, but CM hamsters with shorter lifespans underwent the changes at earlier ages. It was also a better predictor of viability than chronological age. The cardiovascular age index correctly predicted the early death of those hamsters which died before the average death age, whereas they should have been alive according to their chronological age. Conversely, hamsters which lived beyond the average death age had cardiovascular ages younger than the average death age, whereas their chronological ages erroneously indicated they should have been dead. This index may have been able to assess viability because it was correlated with histopathological signs of congestive heart failure in both strains of hamsters, as well as with the total amount of pathology found in them. Hamsters which die naturally at a particular age should have older cardiovascular indices than those sacrificed at the same age, and CM hamsters which died at 11-13 months of age did have older cardiovascular ages than hamsters that were sacrified at these ages. Three experiments examined the effects of various treatments on the index of cardiovascular age. Life in constant light decreased the cardiovascular age of CM hamsters by 30% and extended life by 25%. Chronic digitalis treatment will improve cardiovascular performance, and it prevented increases in cardiovascular age during the end stages of heart failure. Finally, life-threatening chronic stress increased cardiovascular age in CM hamsters, which suggested that severe stress brought CM hamsters nearer to death. However, it was not possible to determine whether the effects of these treatments were on aging or health. Thus, the data suggested that aging, at least in hamsters, may be closely related to the natural development of heart failure which represents a common end stage of life in both cardiomyopathic hamsters and very old, supposedly healthy hamsters.
AB - The functional status of the cardiovascular system in health and cardiomyopathic (CM) hamsters was assessed throughout their lives by measuring heart weight and fluid in the pleural and peritoneal cavities. An index of cardiovascular age was developed from a multiple regression model of changes in these variables with chronological age. This index showed parallel changes in healthy and CM hamsters with increasing age, but CM hamsters with shorter lifespans underwent the changes at earlier ages. It was also a better predictor of viability than chronological age. The cardiovascular age index correctly predicted the early death of those hamsters which died before the average death age, whereas they should have been alive according to their chronological age. Conversely, hamsters which lived beyond the average death age had cardiovascular ages younger than the average death age, whereas their chronological ages erroneously indicated they should have been dead. This index may have been able to assess viability because it was correlated with histopathological signs of congestive heart failure in both strains of hamsters, as well as with the total amount of pathology found in them. Hamsters which die naturally at a particular age should have older cardiovascular indices than those sacrificed at the same age, and CM hamsters which died at 11-13 months of age did have older cardiovascular ages than hamsters that were sacrified at these ages. Three experiments examined the effects of various treatments on the index of cardiovascular age. Life in constant light decreased the cardiovascular age of CM hamsters by 30% and extended life by 25%. Chronic digitalis treatment will improve cardiovascular performance, and it prevented increases in cardiovascular age during the end stages of heart failure. Finally, life-threatening chronic stress increased cardiovascular age in CM hamsters, which suggested that severe stress brought CM hamsters nearer to death. However, it was not possible to determine whether the effects of these treatments were on aging or health. Thus, the data suggested that aging, at least in hamsters, may be closely related to the natural development of heart failure which represents a common end stage of life in both cardiomyopathic hamsters and very old, supposedly healthy hamsters.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0023177175&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/03610738708259304
DO - 10.1080/03610738708259304
M3 - Article
C2 - 3678355
AN - SCOPUS:0023177175
SN - 0361-073X
VL - 13
SP - 73
EP - 84
JO - Experimental Aging Research
JF - Experimental Aging Research
IS - 2
ER -