All issues > Volume 38(6); 1995

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1995;38(6):804-810. Published online June 15, 1995.

The Effect of ACTH on Mouse Heart

Sang Young SY Seo¹, Joo Won JW Lee¹, Chang Sung CS Son¹, Young Chang YC Tockgo¹

¹Deartment of Pediatrics, Korean University, College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

Abstract

Purpose
: Adrenocorticotropic Hormone(ACTH) therapy is useful in the treatment of patients with infantile spasm. However, serious side effects including Cushing syndrome, infections, hypertension, and electrolyte imbalance must be encountered. Moreover, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in association with ACTH therapy has recently reported. We performed thiw study to evaluate the effect of ACTH on heart muscle.
Methods
: We administered ACTH subcutaneously to young ICR mouse for 5 days and according to ACTH doses, the ICR mice were divided into four groups ; control, group I, (1㎍/g body weight/day), group II(2.5㎍/g body weight/day), and group III(5㎍/g body weight/day). After dissection of mouse heart on day 7, we measured the interventricular septum thickness, left ventricular free wall thickness, left ventricular transverse cavity area, left ventricular transverse wall area by imaging analysis.
Results
: 1) The heart weight and the heart weight to body weight ratio were significantly increased in all study groups(Table 1). 2) The ratio of ventricular septum to left ventricular free wall thickness was significantly invreased in group III(p<0.01)(Table 2). 3) The ratio of ventricular septum to left ventricular transverse wall area was significantly decreased in group III(p<0.05)(Table 3).
Conclusion
: These findings suggest that the effect of ACTH on young ICR mouse heart was cardiac hypertrophy and careful cardiac monitoring should be considered in children with ACTH teratment.

Keywords :ACTH(Adrenocrticotrophic hormone), Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy