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Virginia Tech

Chronic Treatment of TMAO Undermines Mouse Cardiac Structure and Function in a Sex-specific Manner

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a major cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide, often with heart failure as the terminal stage. Clinical studies have associated elevated levels of trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), a gut-derived metabolite, with adverse outcomes of CVD. As of today, TMAO's effects on cardiac structure and function are not well understood. In this study, both male and female TMAO-treated hearts showed functional deficits based on electrocardiography and echocardiography results. Immunohistochemistry results showed signs of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in TMAO-treated male hearts while female TMAO-treated hearts showed signs of dilated cardiomyopathy. Neither TMAO group showed signs of fibrosis. Overproduction of reactive oxygen species was only observed in male TMAO-treated hearts. At the level of individual cardiomyocytes, significant delays in time to reach maximum contraction and dilation were only seen in TMAO-treated male hearts along with higher contractile force. Overall, TMAO-treated hearts show significant functional deficits with altered structure in a sex-specific way. Our study utilizes a variety of methods to comprehensively characterize features of TMAO-induced heart failure in both males and females which extends our current knowledge from human clinical associations.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Science
Level thesis:degree_level
masters
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Translational Biology, Medicine and Health
Department dc:contributor.department
Graduate School
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2023

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Ding, Hanzhang
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • He, Jia-Qiang
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Li, Liwu
  • Southard, Teresa

Subjects

dc:subject × 4

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright
Language dc:language.iso
en

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
vt_gsexam:38698
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/117234

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Ding, Hanzhang. Chronic Treatment of TMAO Undermines Mouse Cardiac Structure and Function in a Sex-specific Manner. masters thesis, Virginia Tech, 2023. https://hdl.handle.net/10919/117234