Assessment of caspase-3 activity in rabbit myocardial tissue during experimental hemodynamic overload of the left ventricle of the heart

It's well known that chronic overload of the cardiac left ventricle is accompanied by an increase in the cardiomyocyte apoptosis rate. However direction and extent of programmed cell death changes under an acute overload of the left ventricle still requires detailed investigation. Caspase-3 activity has been investigated in myocardium of rabbits on the 1,3 and 5 days after modeling of left ventricle hemodynamic overload caused by surgical narrrowing of the ascending aorta. Control group included intact animals. It was found that caspase-3 activity significantly increased in both ventricles on day 1; it increased more than twofold above controls on day 3; it began to decrease by day 5. On the basis of the obtained data it was concluded that: an acute hemodynamic overload of the left ventricle is a cause of apoptosis acceleration in the myocardial tissue of both cardiac ventricles during first days of the investigated process.