The role of chemokine ligand 16 in high salt induced myocardial remodeling in salt sensitive hypertensive rats

Objective To investigate the effects of chemokine ligand 16 (CXCL16) in high salt induced myocardial remodeling in salt sensitive hypertensive rats. Methods Sixty-four Dahl salt sensitive (Dahl-SS) rats were randomly divided into normal salt (NS, 0.3% NaCl) and high salt (HS, 8.0% NaCl) group, 32 rats for each group. Blood pressure was measured by tail-cuff method every week. Hearts were harvested and the expression of CXCL16 in heart tissues was detected by Western blotting at the 2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th week after NS or HS feeding. Immunofluorescence double staining was used to detect the colocalization of CXCL16 with both cardiomyocytes and cardiac fibroblasts. Immunofluorescence and immunohistochemical staining were used to detect the expression of CXCL16 and the biomarker of macrophage in the myocardial tissue after 6 week and 8 week of NS or HS feeding. Myocardial fibrosis was evaluated by HE and Masson trichrome staining. Results Compared with that in NS group, the systolic pressure and diastolic pressure in HS group increased significantly after 1 week of HS feeding (147.10±3.67mmHg vs128.57±6.32mmHg, P