Improvement of left ventricular systolic function after acidic fibroblast growth factor delivered by using ultrasound-targeted microbubble destruction in diabetic cardiomyopathy in rats:preliminary experimental study

Abstract

Objective To investigate the protective effects of left ventricular systolic function after delivery of acidic fibroblast growth factor (aFGF) in diabetic cardiomyopathy(DCM) in rats by using ultrasound-targeted microbubble destruction (UTMD) with velocity vector imaging(VVI).Methods The sixty-four male SD rats comprised fifty-two DCM rats,which were induced by streptozotocin through intraperitoneal injecting,and twelve normal rats as normal control group in the study.The DCM rats were randomly divided into four groups and processed as follows:DCM model group,aFGF only group,SonoVueaFGF group,SonoVue-aFGF + UTMD group.Before and four weeks after intervention,all rats underwent M-mode echocardiography and VVI exams.Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF),left ventricular short axis shorten rate (LVFS) were measured using M-mode echocardiography.The mean peak circumferential strain (Sc) and radial strain (Sr) of six wall at the papillary muscle level were measured in left ventricular short-axis view by VVI.At last,myocardial tissue of all rats were stained with CD31 immunohistochemistry to quantify myocardial microvascular density(MVD).Results Before intervention,LVFS,LVEF,Sc and Sr in each experimental group were significantly lower than in the normal control group (P ＜0.01).Four weeks after intervention,Sc,Sr and MVD in the SonoVue-aFGF + UTMD group were significantly increased than in the DCM model group (P ＜0.01),and the above indexes slightly increased in both aFGF only group and SonoVue-aFGF group than those of DCM model group (P ＞0.05).Compared with before intervention,Sc and Sr in the SonoVue-aFGF + UTMD group were significantly higher and these in the DCM model group were significantly lower (P ＜0.05-0.01),in the aFGF only group and SonoVue-aFGF group were slightly increased(P ＞0.05).Conclusions Delivery of aFGF to myocardium in DCM rats by UTMD could enhance angiogenesis and improve the left ventricular systolic function. Key words: Echocardiography; Microbubbles; Ventricular function, left ; Fibroblast growth factor