Model of heart failure induced by mild thiol-blocking with cystamine

Depletion of cardiac ATP content is a characteristic feature of heart failure in patients and experimental animal models. To analyze the impact of insufficient ATP supply on heart function we inhibited cellular respiration by disulfide poisoning with the mild thiol-blocking agent, cystamine. We chose 4 month-old apolipoprotein E (apoE)-deficient mice, which are highly vulnerable to increased oxygen and ATP demands. After 4 weeks of cystamine treatment (300 mg/kg in drinking water), echocardiography and histology analyses demonstrated that apoE-deficient mice had developed heart failure with cardiac dilation. The microarray gene expression study of heart tissue from cystamine-treated apoE-deficient mice relative to untreated mice confirmed the development of heart failure showing up-regulation heart failure-specific genes by mild thiol-blocking with cystamine. Microarray gene expression profiling was performed with heart tissue isolated from three study groups: (i) cystamine-treated 5 month-old apolipoprotein- (apoE)- deficient mice with symptoms of heart failure, (ii) untreated 5 month-old apoE- deficient mice, and (iii) age-matched, untreated, non-transgenic B6 control mice.