Isolation of contracting myocardial cells from the left ventricular muscle in adult normotensive and hypertensive rats

The primary aim of this study was to isolate contracting myocardial cells from adult normotensive and hypertensive rats in order to compare the morphological changes that might have taken place as a result of induced hypertension. One group of adult Sprague-Dawley rats (males) was made hyper-tensive by the one-kidney Goldblatt method. The other group of animals with only one-kidney removed and the left renal artery unclamped served as the control. Blood pressures were measured at 7, 14 and 21 day intervals. The one-kidney Goldblatt rats became hypertensive (blood pressure about 150 rnmHg) between the 7th and 21st day. The results of this comparative study revealed that myocardial cells isolated from the heart of hypertensive rats exhibited syncytial patterns, more intercalated discs, few nucleated areas, and slight to moderate cardiac hypertrophy. The cells isolated from the normotensive rats showed clear, distinct cross-striations, syncytial patterns, a few intercalated discs and a moderate number of nucleated areas. Gross features of cardiac hypertrophy were not observed