Arteriovenous Fistulae in Chronic Kidney Disease and the Heart: Physiological, Histological, and Transcriptomic Characterization of a Novel Rat Model

BACKGROUND: Arteriovenous fistulae (AVFs) are the gold standard for vascular access in those requiring hemodialysis but may put an extra hemodynamic stress on the cardiovascular system. The complex interactions between the heart, kidney, and AVFs remain incompletely understood. METHODS AND RESULTS: We characterized a novel rat model of five‐sixths partial nephrectomy (NX) and AVFs. NX induced increases in urea, creatinine, and hippuric acid. The addition of an AVF (AVF+NX) further increased urea and a number of uremic toxins such as trimethylamine N‐oxide and led to increases in cardiac index, left and right ventricular volumes, and right ventricular mass. Plasma levels of uremic toxins correlated well with ventricular morphology and function. Heart transcriptomes identified altered expression of 8 genes following NX and 894 genes following AVF+NX, whereas 290 and 1431 genes were altered in the kidney transcriptomes, respectively. Gene ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis revealed gene expression changes related to cell division and immune activation in both organs, suppression of ribosomes and transcriptional activity in the heart, and altered renin‐angiotensin signaling as well as chronodisruption in the kidney. All except the latter were worsened in AVF+NX compared with NX. CONCLUSIONS: Inflammation and organ dysfunction in chronic kidney disease are exacerbated following AVF creation. Furthermore, our study provides important information for the discovery of novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets in the management of cardiorenal syndrome.