Animal Models of Heart Failure: Recent Developments and Perspectives

Abstract

Heart failure is a complex syndrome characterized by inability of the heart to supply sufficient cardiac output to meet the metabolic needs of the body. Over the past few decades, a number of animal models of heart failure have been developed to study questions that cannot be readily studied in the clinical setting. Because the syndrome of heart failure in humans has many underlying causes, ranging from primary myocardial disease (often of unknown etiology) to myocardial failure consequent to ventricular overload with secondary cardiac hypertrophy (as in hypertension, valvular heart disease, or myocardial infarction), no single animal model can successfully mimic the pathophysiology of these clinical settings. Regardless of the original cardiac abnormality, however, the end-stage heart failure syndrome generally presents a picture of cardiac dilation and circulatory congestion associated with maladaptive neurohumoral responses affecting the heart and peripheral circulation, which provide prime targets for new treatment strategies. An ideal animal model of heart failure should mimic the clinical setting as closely as possible, be accessible and reproducible, relatively stable under chronic conditions, and sufficiently economical to permit experiments in a large number of animals. In this review, we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of naturally occurring models of heart failure and models in which heart failure is induced in normal animals, focusing in particular on models that are useful for exploring disease mechanisms and interventions to prevent or treat heart failure. Much is being learned from large animals such as the dog and pig, although small animal models (rat and hamster) have many favorable features, and as genetic methods and miniaturized physiologic techniques mature, the mouse is beginning to provide gene-based models of cardiac failure aimed at better understanding of molecular mechanisms. (Trends Cardiovasc Med 1997;7:161–167). © 1997, Elsevier Science Inc.