Perinatal Nitric Oxide Therapy Prevents Adverse Effects of Perinatal Hypoxia on the Adult Pulmonary Circulation

Table 2

Anatomical data.

5-6-month-old mice	Control; 𝑛=25	Perinatal hypoxia; 𝑛=20	Perinatal hypoxia + iNO; 𝑛=13
Body weight (g)	22.83 ± 0.39	22.63 ± 0.36	23.68 ± 0.41
Heart weight (g)	0.100 ± 0.002	0.097 ± 0.001	0.093 ± 0.002^*†
Heart/body ratio	0.0044 ± 0.0001	0.0043 ± 0.0001	0.0039 ± 0.0001^*†
RV weight (g)	0.0230 ± 0.0005	0.0227 ± 0.0006	0.0205 ± 0.0006^*†
(LV + S) weight (g)	0.0771 ± 0.0015	0.0745 ± 0.0009	0.0721±0.0013^∗
Ratio RV/(LV + S)	0.300 ± 0.006	0.304 ± 0.008	0.285 ± 0.010
12–15-month-old mice	Control; 𝑛=11	Perinatal hypoxia; 𝑛=15	Perinatal hypoxia + iNO; 𝑛=17
Body weight (g)	26.84 ± 1.10	28.15 ± 0.92	27.32 ± 0.64
Heart weight (g)	0.107 ± 0.003	0.107 ± 0.002	0.109 ± 0.002
Heart/body ratio	0.0040 ± 0.0002	0.0038 ± 0.0001	0.0040 ± 0.0001
RV weight (g)	0.0231 ± 0.0010	0.0252 ± 0.0004	0.0231 ± 0.0005^†
(LV + S) weight (g)	0.0835 ± 0.0023	0.0821 ± 0.0018	0.0855 ± 0.0015
Ratio RV/(LV + S)	0.276 ± 0.009	0.309±0.008^∗	0.271 ± 0.004^†

Body weight was measured after sacrifice of adult mice. Heart weight corresponds to the sum of the wet weights of the right ventricle (RV) and of the left ventricle plus septum (LV + S). The RV/(LV + S) ratio is the ratio between the weights of RV and LV + S, used as an index of right ventricular hypertrophy. Results are expressed as mean ± SEM; 𝑛 corresponds to the number of animals in each group. ∗Significant difference compared to controls and ^†significant difference between mice exposed to perinatal hypoxia plus iNO and mice with perinatal hypoxia alone (𝑃<0.05, using the Mann-Whitney test). Data related to 5-6-month-old mice born in normoxia (Ctr) or in hypoxia (PH) were previously published [13].