2001 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Quantitative structural analysis of athletic hearts of racing pigeons
Project/Area Number |
12660282
|
Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
Section | 一般 |
Research Field |
Applied veterinary science
|
Research Institution | Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology |
Principal Investigator |
MACHIDA Noboru Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, Associate Professor, 農学部, 助教授 (20219364)
|
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
KASHIDA Yoko Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, Assistant Professor, 農学部, 助手 (00313289)
|
Project Period (FY) |
2000 – 2001
|
Keywords | athletic heart / physiological cardiac hypertrophy / sudden cardiac death / racing pigon / ferd pigon / heart / cardiac myocyte / morphometry |
Research Abstract |
Morphometric measurements of the heart in 48 racing pigeons (RP) aged from 3 months to 10 years, a breed selected for long-distance flying, were compared with data from 65 feral pigeons (FP), the same breed as RP (Columva livia domestica), in order to clarify the quantitative morphologic features of athletic hearts of racing pigeons. Heart weight to body weight ratios were 15.3-16.8% higher in RP than in FP (P<0.01). Although there was no difference between RP and FP in cross-sectional area of the septal and left ventricular wall in a given transverse plane, myocyte cross-sectional area, and the capillary density calculated as number of capillaries per unit area of the myocardium, the dimensions of the left ventricular cavity and myocyte length were both significantly greater in RP (29.7% and 16.2-20.1%, respectively ; P<0.001). From these findings, the greater myocyte length contributed the higher heart weight to body weight ratio of RP and to the enlargement of the dimensions of the left ventricular cavity without a proportionate increase in the septal and left ventricular wall area. In conclusion, the results of the present study suggest that athletic hearts observed in RP can be viewed as a form of the eccentric hypertrophy typical of volume-overloaded hearts that occurs with dynamic exercise training in long-distance runners, ant that large hearts in RP has a genetic basis.
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Research Products
(4 results)