Pilot study for assessing TAC-induced pulmonary arterial hypertension

To elucidate whether the PAH animal model was successfully created by the TAC procedure, an additional ten mice were equally utilized as SC and TAC only. On day 60, the RVSBP, an index of pulmonary arterial systolic blood pressure (PABP), was measured in these animals. The results showed that the RVSBP and the total heart weight were remarkably increased in the TAC group compared with the SC group (Figure 1). Additionally, the gross anatomy showed that the heart size was notably larger in the TAC group than in the SC group (Figure 1). These findings showed that the TAC-induced PAH was successfully created.

Results of the pilot study. (A & B) The Doppler results of blood flow velocity of the ascending aorta 2 weeks after the transverse aortic constriction (TAC) procedure. (C) Analytical results of blood flow velocity at the ascending aorta. (D) Right ventricular systolic blood pressure (RVSBP) at day 60 after TAC procedure. (E) The gross anatomical finding of the appearance of the whole heart and a cross section of the heart at the papillary level. Notably larger size of the whole heart and left ventricular hypertrophy (ie, from cross section) were observed in TAC animals compared with sham control (SC) animals. (F) The ratio of heart weight to tibial length. (G) The ratio of lung weight to tibial length. Mean±SEM. n=6 for each group. ^**P<0.01 vs TAC group.