Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
3
pubmed:dateCreated
2001-2-22
pubmed:abstractText
Cardiac arrhythmia is a common and often lethal manifestation of many forms of heart disease. Gap junction remodeling has been postulated to contribute to the increased propensity for arrhythmogenesis in diseased myocardium, although a causative role in vivo remains speculative. By generating mice with cardiac-restricted knockout of connexin43 (Cx43), we have circumvented the perinatal lethal developmental defect associated with germline inactivation of this gap junction channel gene and uncovered an essential role for Cx43 in the maintenance of electrical stability. Mice with cardiac-specific loss of Cx43 have normal heart structure and contractile function, and yet they uniformly (28 of 28 conditional Cx43 knockout mice observed) develop sudden cardiac death from spontaneous ventricular arrhythmias by 2 months of age. Optical mapping of the epicardial electrical activation pattern in Cx43 conditional knockout mice revealed that ventricular conduction velocity was significantly slowed by up to 55% in the transverse direction and 42% in the longitudinal direction, resulting in an increase in anisotropic ratio compared with control littermates (2.1+/-0.13 versus 1.66+/-0.06; P:<0.01). This novel genetic murine model of primary sudden cardiac death defines gap junctional abnormalities as a key molecular feature of the arrhythmogenic substrate.
pubmed:grant
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:chemical
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
Feb
pubmed:issn
1524-4571
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Electronic
pubmed:day
16
pubmed:volume
88
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
333-9
pubmed:dateRevised
2007-11-15
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
2001
pubmed:articleTitle
Conduction slowing and sudden arrhythmic death in mice with cardiac-restricted inactivation of connexin43.
pubmed:affiliation
Section of Myocardial Biology, Cardiovascular Institute, Department of Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY 10029, USA.
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S., Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S., Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't