Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Barbetti, Margherita
• Vilella, Rocchina
• Naponelli, Valeria
• Bilotti, Iolanda
• Magistrati, Martina
• Dallabona, Cristina
• Ielpo, Donald
• Andolina, Diego
• Sgoifo, Andrea
• Savi, Monia
• Carnevali, Luca

Titel

Repeated witness social stress causes cardiomyocyte contractile impairment and intracellular Ca2+ derangement in female rats

Ist Teil von

• Physiology & behavior, 2023-11, Vol.271, p.114339-114339, Article 114339

Ort / Verlag

Elsevier Inc

Erscheinungsjahr

2023

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• •Witness social stress-induced cardiac remodeling was investigated in female rats.•Cardiomyocytes of stressed females showed defects in contractile properties and calcium dynamics.•Alterations in mechanisms regulating intracellular calcium transport were implicated.•Social stress-related pathophysiological processes can be studied in the female heart using the witness social stress model. The impact of psychosocial stressors on cardiovascular health in women is of growing interest in both the popular and scientific literature. Rodent models are useful for providing direct experimental evidence of the adverse cardiovascular consequences of psychosocial stressors, yet studies in females are scarce. Here, we investigated the effects of repeated exposure to witness social defeat stress (WS) on cardiomyocyte contractile function and intracellular Ca2+ homeostasis in young adult wild-type Groningen female rats. Female rats bore witness to an aggressive social defeat episode between two males for nine consecutive days or were exposed to a control procedure. Stress-related behaviors were assessed during the first and last WS/control exposure. Twenty-four hours after the last exposure, plasma corticosterone levels were measured, and cardiomyocytes were isolated for analyses of contractile properties and Ca2+ transients, and expression levels of proteins involved in intracellular Ca2+dynamics. The results show an impairment of the intrinsic cardiac mechanical properties and prolonged intracellular Ca2+decay in WS female rats showing social stress-related behavioral (larger amounts of burying behavior) and neuroendocrine (elevated plasma corticosterone levels) phenotypes. Further, the results implicate alterations in the sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase/phospholamban complex in the contractile defects described in cardiomyocytes of WS female rats. In conclusion, this study highlights the utility of the WS model as an ethologically relevant social stressor for investigating pathophysiological processes that occur in the heart of female subjects and may increase vulnerability to social stress-related cardiovascular risk.