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Sex differences in heart rate and heart rate variability in rats: Implications for translational research

The present study aimed to investigate sex differences in measures of cardiac chronotropy and heart rate variability (HRV) in 132 young adult wild-type Groningen rats (n = 45 females). Electrocardiographic signals were recorded for 48 h in freely moving rats to quantify heart rate (HR) and inter-bea...

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Autores principales: Carnevali, Luca, Barbetti, Margherita, Statello, Rosario, Williams, DeWayne P., Thayer, Julian F., Sgoifo, Andrea
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10080026/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37035663
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2023.1170320
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author Carnevali, Luca
Barbetti, Margherita
Statello, Rosario
Williams, DeWayne P.
Thayer, Julian F.
Sgoifo, Andrea
author_facet Carnevali, Luca
Barbetti, Margherita
Statello, Rosario
Williams, DeWayne P.
Thayer, Julian F.
Sgoifo, Andrea
author_sort Carnevali, Luca
collection PubMed
description The present study aimed to investigate sex differences in measures of cardiac chronotropy and heart rate variability (HRV) in 132 young adult wild-type Groningen rats (n = 45 females). Electrocardiographic signals were recorded for 48 h in freely moving rats to quantify heart rate (HR) and inter-beat interval (IBI) as measures of cardiac chronotropy, and time- and frequency-domain HRV parameters as physiological readouts of cardiac vagal modulation. Females showed greater vagally-mediated HRV despite having higher HR and shorter IBI than males during undisturbed conditions. Such differences were evident i) at any given level of HRV, and ii) both during the 12-h light/inactive and 12-h dark/active phase of the daily cycle. These findings replicate the paradoxical cardiac chronotropic control reported by human meta-analytic findings, since one would expect greater vagally-mediated HRV to be associated with lower HR and longer IBI. Lastly, the association between some HRV measures and HR was stronger in female than male rats. Overall, the current study in young adult rats provides data illustrating a sex-dependent association between vagally-mediated HRV and indexes of cardiac chronotropy. The current results i) are in line with human findings, ii) suggest to always consider biological sex in the analysis and interpretation of HRV data in rats, and iii) warrant the use of rats for investigating the neuro-hormonal basis and temporal evolution of the impact of sex on the association between vagally-mediated HRV and cardiac chronotropy, which could inform the human condition.
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spelling pubmed-100800262023-04-08 Sex differences in heart rate and heart rate variability in rats: Implications for translational research Carnevali, Luca Barbetti, Margherita Statello, Rosario Williams, DeWayne P. Thayer, Julian F. Sgoifo, Andrea Front Physiol Physiology The present study aimed to investigate sex differences in measures of cardiac chronotropy and heart rate variability (HRV) in 132 young adult wild-type Groningen rats (n = 45 females). Electrocardiographic signals were recorded for 48 h in freely moving rats to quantify heart rate (HR) and inter-beat interval (IBI) as measures of cardiac chronotropy, and time- and frequency-domain HRV parameters as physiological readouts of cardiac vagal modulation. Females showed greater vagally-mediated HRV despite having higher HR and shorter IBI than males during undisturbed conditions. Such differences were evident i) at any given level of HRV, and ii) both during the 12-h light/inactive and 12-h dark/active phase of the daily cycle. These findings replicate the paradoxical cardiac chronotropic control reported by human meta-analytic findings, since one would expect greater vagally-mediated HRV to be associated with lower HR and longer IBI. Lastly, the association between some HRV measures and HR was stronger in female than male rats. Overall, the current study in young adult rats provides data illustrating a sex-dependent association between vagally-mediated HRV and indexes of cardiac chronotropy. The current results i) are in line with human findings, ii) suggest to always consider biological sex in the analysis and interpretation of HRV data in rats, and iii) warrant the use of rats for investigating the neuro-hormonal basis and temporal evolution of the impact of sex on the association between vagally-mediated HRV and cardiac chronotropy, which could inform the human condition. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-03-24 /pmc/articles/PMC10080026/ /pubmed/37035663 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2023.1170320 Text en Copyright © 2023 Carnevali, Barbetti, Statello, Williams, Thayer and Sgoifo. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Physiology
Carnevali, Luca
Barbetti, Margherita
Statello, Rosario
Williams, DeWayne P.
Thayer, Julian F.
Sgoifo, Andrea
Sex differences in heart rate and heart rate variability in rats: Implications for translational research
title Sex differences in heart rate and heart rate variability in rats: Implications for translational research
title_full Sex differences in heart rate and heart rate variability in rats: Implications for translational research
title_fullStr Sex differences in heart rate and heart rate variability in rats: Implications for translational research
title_full_unstemmed Sex differences in heart rate and heart rate variability in rats: Implications for translational research
title_short Sex differences in heart rate and heart rate variability in rats: Implications for translational research
title_sort sex differences in heart rate and heart rate variability in rats: implications for translational research
topic Physiology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10080026/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37035663
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2023.1170320
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