Table 1.
Animal characteristics.
| CON | PAH | PAH + EPO | PAH + EPO + SnMP | PAH + SnMP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hemodynamics | |||||
| Mean pulmonary artery pressure | 20 ± 1 | 32 ± 1* | 35 ± 1 | 37 ± 3 | 34 ± 2 |
| Systolic pulmonary arterial pressure (mmHg) | 30 ± 1 | 54 ± 3* | 56 ± 3 | 56 ± 4 | 56 ± 6 |
| Mean systemic arterial pressure (mmHg) | 89 ± 2 | 63 ± 4* | 71 ± 6 | 71 ± 5 | 67 ± 4 |
| dP/dT indexed max | 106 ± 8 | 71 ± 2* | 76 ± 6 | 74 ± 7 | 67 ± 6 |
| −dP/dT indexed max | 91 ± 7 | 55 ± 16* | 80 ± 6 | 56 ± 18 | 62 ± 7 |
| Heart rate (beats per minute) | 343 ± 20 | 310 ± 14 | 321 ± 15 | 312 ± 18 | 328 ± 13 |
| Pathology | |||||
| Body weight at sacrifice (g) | 390 ± 8 | 350 ± 8* | 346 ± 5 | 343 ± 5 | 343 ± 5 |
| RV hypertrophy, RV/(LV + IVS) | 0.25 ± 0.01 | 0.47 ± 0.03* | 0.47 ± 0.03 | 0.47 ± 0.03 | 0.42 ± 0.04 |
| RV weight (mg) | 0.21 ± 0.02 | 0.44 ± 0.02 | 0.44 ± 0.03 | 0.40 ± 0.03 | 0.38 ± 0.03 |
| Pulmonary vascular morphometry | |||||
| Intra-acinar pulmonary vessels <50 μm | |||||
| Totally muscularized | 2.6 ± 1.2 | 20.3 ± 3.5* | 18.9 ± 2.6 | 24.0 ± 5.6 | 28.8 ± 6.1 |
| Partly muscularized | 2.7 ± 0.9 | 9.4 ± 2.5* | 9.6 ± 2.0 | 17.6 ± 2.6 | 13.1 ± 3.0 |
| Pre-acinar pulmonary vessels >50 μm | |||||
| Wall thickness (μm) | 7.3 ± 1.3 | 15.6 ± 1.5* | 16.1 ± 1.8 | 15.4 ± 1.9 | 16.6 ± 3.1 |
| Wall/lumen ratio | 0.08 ± 0.01 | 0.15 ± 0.01* | 0.14 ± 0.01 | 0.15 ± 0.02 | 0.24 ± 0.05§,# |
Data are presented as mean ± SEM. CON, control group, n = 12; PAH, untreated pulmonary arterial hypertension, n = 14; PAH + EPO, PAH treated with erythropoietin (EPO), n = 15; PAH + EPO + SnMP, PAH treated with EPO and tin-mesoporphyrin (SnMP), n = 13; PAH + SnMP, PAH treated with SnMP, n = 10; RV, right ventricle; (−)dP/dT indexed max, RV contractility, maximal rate of increase or decrease in RV pressure [calculated as the variation in pressure (P) with time (T) corrected for RV systolic pressure]; LV, left ventricle; IVS, interventricular septum. Differences between the PAH and CON groups were analyzed using t-tests for normally distributed data and Mann–Whitney U testing for not normally distributed data. Differences between the untreated and treated PAH groups (groups 1–4) were tested by one-way ANOVA followed by Fisher’s protected LSD post hoc testing (hematocrit, hemodynamics, RV hypertrophy, pulmonary vascular remodeling).
*p < 0.05 vs. CON.
#p < 0.05 vs. PAH.
§p < 0.05 vs. PAH + EPO + SnMP.