AJP-Heart and Circulatory Physiology Podcast

What is the role of calcium transients in sudden cardiac death associated with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy? Listen as Associate Editor Gary Lopaschuk (University of Alberta) interviews lead author Steven Marston (Imperial College London) and content expert Susan Howlett (Dalhousie University) about the work by Marston and colleagues, who studied alterations in calcium handling in a unique transgenic mouse model of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a common form of cardiac hypertrophy. Analyzing both calcium waves and calcium sparks, Marston and co-authors found that the proportion of transgenic mice which had a higher spark mass did succumb to sudden cardiac death at 40 days old. In comparison, older transgenic mice and younger non-transgenic mice with a lower spark mass did not die of sudden cardiac death. Given that the transgenic mice showed spontaneous calcium release and more frequent calcium sparks, did the authors find these mice had a higher incidence of arrhythmias? Does the strain of mice used in the transgenic model have implications on study results? Listen to find out.

Christina Rowlands, Thomas Owen, Saheed Lawal, Shuangyi Cao, Samata Pandey, Hsiang-Yu Yang, Weihua Song, Ross Wilkinson, Anita Alvarez-Laviada, Katja Gehmlich, Steven Marston, Kenneth T. MacLeod Circulating Age and strain related aberrant Ca2+ release is associated with sudden cardiac death in the ACTC E99K mouse model of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol, published September 8, 2017. DOI: 10.1152/ajpheart.00244.2017