ArticlePediatric research2021
Echocardiographic assessment of fetal cardiac function in the uterine artery ligation rat model of IUGR.
Article in Pediatric research, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 7 citations in OpenAlex.
- Understanding changes in echocardiographic parameters at different ages following fetal growth restriction: a systematic review and meta-analysis.American journal of physiology. Heart and circulatory physiology · 2024Pooled it
- Micro and nanoplastic inhalation during gestation disrupts placentation in the Sprague-Dawley rat.Research square · 2026Article
- Compromised cardiopulmonary transition in fetal growth restricted and small for gestational age neonates.The Journal of physiology · 2025Review
- Micro and nanoplastic inhalation during pregnancy elicits uterine endothelial dysfunction in Sprague Dawley rats by impeding nitric oxide signaling.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- TERT translocation as a Novel condition in Intrauterine Growth Restriction rats with early catch-up growth.PloS one · 2025Article
- A detailed echocardiographic evaluation of ventricular functions in stable full term small for gestational age babies.Journal of ultrasound · 2023Observational
- Prenatal Diagnosis of Fetal Heart Failure.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Low birth weight and reduced postnatal nutrition lead to cardiac dysfunction in piglets.Journal of animal science · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIntrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) leads to cardiac dysfunction and adverse remodeling of the fetal heart, as well as a higher risk of postnatal cardiovascular diseases. The rat model of IUGR, via uterine artery ligation, is a popular model but its cardiac sequelae is not well investigated. Here, we performed an echocardiographic evaluation of its cardiac function to determine how well it can represent the disease in humans.
methodsUnilateral uterine artery ligation was performed at embryonic day 17 (E17) and echocardiography was performed at E19 and E20.
resultsGrowth-restricted fetuses were significantly smaller and lighter, and had an higher placenta-to-fetus weight ratio. Growth-restricted fetal hearts had reduced wall thickness-to-diameter ratio, indicating left ventricular (LV) dilatation, and they had elevated trans-mitral and trans-tricuspid E/A ratios and reduced left and right ventricular fractional shortening (FS), suggesting systolic and diastolic dysfunction. These were similar to human IUGR fetuses. However, growth-restricted rat fetuses did not demonstrate head-sparing effect, displayed a lower LV myocardial performance index, and ventricular outflow velocities were not significantly reduced, which were dissimilar to human IUGR fetuses.
conclusionsDespite the differences, our results suggest that this IUGR model has significant cardiac dysfunction, and could be a suitable model for studying IUGR cardiovascular physiology. IMPACT: Animal models of IUGR are useful, but their fetal cardiac function is not well studied, and it is unclear if they can represent human IUGR fetuses. We performed an echocardiographic assessment of the heart function of a fetal rat model of IUGR, created via maternal uterine artery ligation. Similar to humans, the model displayed LV dilatation, elevated E/A ratios, and reduced FS. Different from humans, the model displayed reduced MPI, and no significant outflow velocity reduction. Despite differences with humans, this rat model still displayed cardiac dysfunction and is suitable for studying IUGR cardiovascular physiology.
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