Cardiac Hypertrophy in the Mouse Heart: Cold and Exercise Exposure

Abstract

Cardiac hypertrophy is a condition in which enlargement of the heart that can be physiological or pathological. Physiological hypertrophy is thought to have a positive effect from having a well-conditioned body and heart from extensive physical activity. Pathological hypertrophy, on the other hand, is a traumatic condition for the heart, commonly resulting from obesity or other severely stressful situations and eventually leading to heart failure. In both scenarios, the heart becomes enlarged, but the resulting well-being or ill-being of the patient varies depending on the type of hypertrophy. The study is designed to facilitate a better understanding of the gene expression causing the hypertrophy that causes these changes in the mouse heart. With control and both acute and long term and short term, we have completed exercise studies on the mice and collected cardiac weight data. We have isolated RNA from the samples and collected Next Generation sequencing data from 5-6 animals in each of these 5 groups. To validate those data, we propose to analyze cardiac gene expression of several regulated genes identified in that analysis. We will learn the details of genetic analysis using both cutting edge Next Generation sequencing and real-time quantitative PCR to measure gene expression.