Gender differences in cardiovascular alterations induced by zinc restriction during fetal life and growth.

ARRANZ CRISTINA; JURIOL LORENA; MENDES GARRIDO FACUNDO; GOBETTO NATALIA; ELESGARAY ROSANA; MAC LAUGHLIN MYRIAM; DASSO MARINA; CARDELLI ALCALDE D; JUDITH ZILBERMAN; COSTA MARíA ÁNGELES; TOMAT ANALíA

Congreso; XXIII European Meeting on Hypertension; 2013

Male adult rats exposed to zinc restriction in the diet during fetal life showed hypertension, renal dysfunction and alteration in lipid metabolism in the adult life. Meanwhile, 6 and 21 days-old rats showed myocytes remodelling and reduced cardiac nitric oxide synthase activity. Objective: To evaluate cardiovascular alterations in growing and adult zinc deficient rats and to compare the effects in males (m) and females (f) rats. Design and method: Wistar rats were exposed from the beginning of pregnancy up to adulthood: low (L, 8 ppm) or control(C, 30 ppm) zinc diet. At day 81, we evaluated, in m and f offspring of each group of mothers (Cm, Lm, Cf and Lf), systolic blood pressure (SBP, mmHg) by indirect tail-cuff technique, thoracic aorta diameter (AD,ìm, stained by heamatoxylin-eosin), heart weight/tibial lengh (HW,mg/mm) , and left ventricular (LV) function, assessed by echocardiography, studying end ?diastolic (EDV, ml) and systolic (ESV,ml) volume and ejection fraction (EF %). Results: Zinc deficient rats showed reduced HW in both gender (Cm: 30.9±1.3, Lm: 27.3 ± 1.1*; Cf: 25.1±0.5, Lf:19.9±0.7?). AD was reduced only in m zinc deficient rats (Cm: 1728±34; Lm:1468±41*; Cf:1551±42; Lf:1536±33, NS). Values are means±SEM, n=6 for each group.Two ways ANOVA, Bonferroni post test *p<0.01vs Cm; ?p<0.01vs Cf . Conclusion: there are gender differences in the impact of zinc restriction during fetal life and lactation in adult cardiovascular system. Male rats showed high levels of arterial blood pressure with a reduction in large arteries size, probably inducing an increase of afterload. LV function was also altered possibly due to the hypertension or to alterations in the development of cardiovascular system. This results showed a cardiovascular protection in female rats