1. Testosterone does not shorten action potential duration in Langendorff-perfused rabbit ventricles.
- Author
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Ueoka A, Sung YL, Liu X, Rosenberg C, Chen Z, Everett TH 4th, Rubart M, Tisdale JE, and Chen PS
- Subjects
- Animals, Female, Rabbits, Humans, Male, Testosterone pharmacology, Action Potentials, Heart, Heart Ventricles, Long QT Syndrome, Atrioventricular Block
- Abstract
Background: Women have longer baseline QT intervals than men. Because previous studies showed that testosterone and 5α-dihydrotestosterone shorten the ventricular action potential duration (APD) in animal models, differential testosterone concentrations may account for the sex differences in QT interval., Objective: The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that testosterone shortens the APD in Langendorff-perfused rabbit ventricles., Methods: We performed optical mapping studies in hearts with or without testosterone administration. Acute studies included 26 hearts using 2 different protocols, including 17 without and 9 with atrioventricular (AV) block. For chronic studies, we implanted testosterone pellets subcutaneously in 7 female rabbits for 2-3 weeks before optical mapping studies during complete AV block. Six rabbits without pellet implantation served as controls., Results: The hearts in the acute studies were paced with a pacing cycle length (PCL) of 200-300 ms and mapped at baseline and after administration of 1 nM, 10 nM, 100 nM, and 3 μM of testosterone. There was no shortening of APD
80 at any PCL. Instead, a lengthening of APD80 was noted at higher concentrations. There were no sex differences in testosterone responses. In chronic studies, heart rates were 136 ± 5 bpm before and 148 ± 9 bpm after (P = .10) while QTc intervals were 314 ± 9 ms before and 317 ± 99 ms after (P = .69) testosterone pellet implantation, respectively. Overall, ventricular APD80 in the pellet group was longer than in the control group at 300- to 700-ms PCL., Conclusion: Testosterone does not shorten ventricular repolarization in rabbit hearts., (Copyright © 2022 Heart Rhythm Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)- Published
- 2022
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