Cardiac Depression in Pigs after Multiple Trauma - Characterization of Posttraumatic Structural and Functional Alterations

Sci Rep. 2017 Dec 19;7(1):17861. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-18088-1.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to define the relationship between cardiac depression and morphological and immunological alterations in cardiac tissue after multiple trauma. However, the mechanistic basis of depressed cardiac function after trauma is still elusive. In a porcine polytrauma model including blunt chest trauma, liver laceration, femur fracture and haemorrhage serial trans-thoracic echocardiography was performed and correlated with cellular cardiac injury as well as with the occurrence of extracellular histones in serum. Postmortem analysis of heart tissue was performed 72 h after trauma. Ejection fraction and shortening fraction of the left ventricle were significantly impaired between 4 and 27 h after trauma. H-FABP, troponin I and extracellular histones were elevated early after trauma and returned to baseline after 24 and 48 h, respectively. Furthermore, increased nitrotyrosine and Il-1β generation and apoptosis were identified in cardiac tissue after trauma. Main structural findings revealed alteration of connexin 43 (Cx43) and co-translocation of Cx43 and zonula occludens 1 to the cytosol, reduction of α-actinin and increase of desmin in cardiomyocytes after trauma. The cellular and subcellular events demonstrated in this report may for the first time explain molecular mechanisms associated with cardiac dysfunction after multiple trauma.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Actinin / metabolism
  • Animals
  • Apoptosis / physiology
  • Connexin 43 / metabolism
  • Cytosol / metabolism
  • Cytosol / physiology
  • Desmin / metabolism
  • Echocardiography / methods
  • Fatty Acid Binding Protein 3 / metabolism
  • Heart Injuries / metabolism
  • Heart Injuries / pathology*
  • Heart Injuries / physiopathology*
  • Heart Ventricles / metabolism
  • Heart Ventricles / pathology*
  • Histones / metabolism
  • Interleukin-1beta / metabolism
  • Male
  • Multiple Trauma / metabolism
  • Multiple Trauma / pathology*
  • Myocytes, Cardiac / metabolism
  • Myocytes, Cardiac / pathology
  • Swine
  • Troponin I / metabolism
  • Zonula Occludens-1 Protein / metabolism

Substances

  • Connexin 43
  • Desmin
  • Fatty Acid Binding Protein 3
  • Histones
  • Interleukin-1beta
  • Troponin I
  • Zonula Occludens-1 Protein
  • Actinin