Cardio-omentopexy Reduces Cardiac Fibrosis and Heart Failure After Experimental Pressure Overload

Background The pedicled greater omentumhas been shown to offer benefit in ischemic heart disease for both animal models and human patients. The impact of cardio- omentopexyin a pressure overloadmodel of left ventricular hypertrophy(LVH) is unknown. Methods LVH was created in rats by banding the ascending aortaafter right thoracotomy(n = 23). Sham surgerywas performed in 12 additional rats. Six weeks after banding, surviving LVH rats were assigned to cardio- omentopexyby left thoracotomy(LVH+Om, n = 8) or sham left thoracotomy(LVH, n = 8). Sham rats also underwent left thoracotomyfor cardio- omentopexy(Sham+Om, n = 6); the remaining rats underwent sham left thoracotomy(Sham, n = 6). Results Echocardiography 10 weeks after cardio- omentopexyrevealed LV end-systolic diameter, cardiomyocyte diamter, and myocardial fibrosis in the LVH group were significantly increased compared with the LVH+Om, Sham+Om, and Sham groups ( p p p p p Conclusions Cardio- omentopexyreduced cardiac dilation, contractile dysfunction, cardiomyocyte hypertrophy, and myocardial fibrosis, while maintaining other molecular indicators of contractile function in this LVH model.