A novel ex-vivo isolated rabbit heart preparation to explore the cardiac effects of cervical and cardiac vagus nerve stimulation

The cardiac responses to vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) are still not fully understood, partly due to uncontrollable confounders in the in-vivo experimental condition. Therefore, an ex-vivo Langendorff-perfused rabbit heart with intact vagal innervation is proposed to study VNS in absence of cofoundi...

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Published in:Scientific reports 2023-03, Vol.13 (1), p.4214-4214, Article 4214
Main Authors: Kronsteiner, Bettina, Haberbusch, Max, Aigner, Philipp, Kramer, Anne-Margarethe, Pilz, Patrick M., Podesser, Bruno K., Kiss, Attila, Moscato, Francesco
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
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Animals
Autonomic Nervous System
Bradycardia
Electric Stimulation
Electrical stimuli
Excitability
Heart
Heart - physiology
Heart Rate
Humanities and Social Sciences
Innervation
multidisciplinary
Physiology
Rabbits
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Vagus nerve
Vagus Nerve - physiology
Vagus Nerve Stimulation - methods
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Summary:The cardiac responses to vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) are still not fully understood, partly due to uncontrollable confounders in the in-vivo experimental condition. Therefore, an ex-vivo Langendorff-perfused rabbit heart with intact vagal innervation is proposed to study VNS in absence of cofounding anesthetic or autonomic influences. The feasibility to evoke chronotropic responses through electrical stimulation ex-vivo was studied in innervated isolated rabbit hearts (n = 6). The general nerve excitability was assessed through the ability to evoke a heart rate (HR) reduction of at least 5 bpm (physiological threshold). The excitability was quantified as the charge needed for a 10-bpm HR reduction. The results were compared to a series of in-vivo experiments rabbits (n = 5). In the ex-vivo isolated heart, the baseline HR was about 20 bpm lower than in-vivo (158 ± 11 bpm vs 181 ± 19 bpm). Overall, the nerve remained excitable for about 5 h ex-vivo. The charges required to reduce HR by 5 bpm were 9 ± 6 µC and 549 ± 370 µC, ex-vivo and in-vivo, respectively. The charges needed for a 10-bpm HR reduction, normalized to the physiological threshold were 1.78 ± 0.8 and 1.22 ± 0.1, in-vivo and ex-vivo, respectively. Overall, the viability of this ex-vivo model to study the acute cardiac effects of VNS was demonstrated.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-023-31135-4