Sturgill, S. L.; Aidja, M.; Hu, B.; Ziolo, M. T.

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of global mortality, with recent increases attributed to demographic shifts in age and rising rates of obesity. Diminished contractile reserve is a hallmark of a diseased heart; assessing contractile reserve is pivotal in prognosticating and monitoring CVD progression. The Frank-Starling mechanism and sympathetic stimulation are key to enhance contractile reserve but have not been explored in vivo in old and obese mouse models of CVD. This project aims to use speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) to characterize the function of the heart at baseline, with increased preload, and with sympathetic stimulation. We hypothesize that along with blunted systolic function, diastolic function, and contractility, old and obese mice will have a blunted contractile reserve. Methods: STE was obtained for control (4-month-old), aged (24-month-old), and obese mice (high fat diet-induced). Mice received an intravenous injection of 150L saline to increase preload to assess the Frank-Starling response, followed by injection of {beta}1adrenergic receptor agonist dobutamine to assess sympathetic response. Results: At baseline, aging and obese mice demonstrated blunted systolic, diastolic function, and contractility. Endocardial and epicardial wall displacement differed between aging and obese mice with contractile reserve, indicating that they have functionally distinct cardiac phenotypes. Conclusions: This study is the first to demonstrate blunted systolic function, diastolic function, and contractility through STE in aging and obese mice. Our novel method for investigating the contractile reserve of mice demonstrated aging and obese mice have dissimilar responses when assessing contractile reserve, which could contribute to their distinct functional phenotypes.