Proportional arteriolar growth accompanies cardiac hypertrophy induced by volume overload

Image analysis and morphometric measurements in the arteriovenous (A-V) shunt in the left and right ventricles of rats show that arteriolar angiogenesis has a linear relationship with the magnitude of volume overload-induced ventricular enlargement and is responsible for 50% of the cardiac hypertrophy. The arteriolar length density is lesser in the left ventricle of the A-V shunt rats while it is the same in the right ventricle of both A-V shunt and control rats. Thus, capillary and arteriolar growth compensate for the overload-induced ventricular enlargement.