Laboratory and Basic Science Research Commons^™

The Effect Of Chronic Hypoxia On Cardiac Function In The Fetal Ovine Heart, Rodney David Rodrigo

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

It has been shown that long-term high altitude hypoxia during pregnancy was associated with a decrease in cardiac contractility in fetal sheep. Given that hypoxia caused apoptotic cell death in fetal and neonatal rat cardiomyocytes, the present study tested the hypothesis that chronic hypoxia during pregnancy increases apoptosis in the fetal sheep heart. Pregnant (d 30) sheep were divided between normoxic control and chronically hypoxic (maintained at high altitude, 3,820 m, PaO₂: 60 Torr for 110 days) groups. Hearts were isolated from near-term (d 140) fetal sheep, and samples from all four chambers, right and left atria, and …