A New Transgenic Mouse Model of Heart Failure and Cardiac Cachexia Raised by Sustained Activation of Met Tyrosine Kinase in the Heart

Figure 1

Progressive concentric hypertrophy is accompanied by increased Gdf15 expression in Tpr-Met expressing hearts. (a) At P27, Tpr-Met hearts displayed echocardiographic features of cardiac hypertrophy, including significantly reduced LV Volumes, in both diastole and systole, compared to controls. Hypertrophy was further underlined by a significant increase in thickness/radius ratio (h/r) (b), LV mass (c) and LV mass normalized on body weight (LV mass/BW) (d), and relative wall thickness (RWT) (e) in Tpr-Met mice, compared to controls. (f) At the age of P27, Tpr-Met mice showed preserved ejection fraction (EF). With the increase in the extent of cardiac hypertrophy from P21 to P27, as shown by stereomicroscopy (g), a progressive increase in cardiac Gdf15 mRNA levels was observed from P21 (h) to P27 (i). ; ; .

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