adenosine-3--5--cyclic-phosphorothioate and Cardiomyopathies

Eighteen month old spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR-rats) showed myocardial dysfunction and autoantibodies directed against the beta1-adrenoceptor similarly as known in human dilated cardiomyopathy or Chagas' disease. The agonist-like antibodies were able to activate the beta1-adrenoceptor mediated signal transduction cascade in cultured rat cardiomyocytes and induced a long-lasting stimulatory effect resulting in a harmful adrenergic overdrive. The antibodies recognized an epitope of the second extracellular loop of the beta1-adrenoceptor identical to that epitope identified in Chagas' disease. In conclusion, our assumption is supported that old SHR-rat are an useful animal model for investigating the role of anti-beta1-adrenoceptor antibodies in the induction of human cardiomyopathy.

Topics: Adrenergic beta-Antagonists; Aging; Animals; Animals, Newborn; Autoantibodies; Blood Pressure; Cardiomyopathies; Cells, Cultured; Cyclic AMP; Epitopes; Heart Rate; Humans; Immunoglobulins; Myocytes, Cardiac; Peptides; Propanolamines; Rats; Rats, Inbred SHR; Rats, Inbred WKY; Receptors, Adrenergic, beta-1; Signal Transduction; Thionucleotides; Ventricular Pressure