Perinatal ciclosporin A exposure elicits sex-related cardiac dysfunction and inflammation in the rat progeny

Ciclosporin A (CSA) has been identified with harmful cardiotoxicity but little, if any, is known about the influence of perinatal exposure upon the cardiac function of the progeny. The present work examines the premise that perinatal contact with CSA undermines the cardiac function of sexually mature rats. Administration of CSA (15 mg/kg/day sc) to pregnant rats from day 6 of conception till weaning led to a decrease in gradient of the end-systolic pressure-volume relationship by a factor of ten for male progeny and a factor of two for female progeny. Perinatally CSA-exposed male, but not female, progeny also demonstrated significantly increased systolic and diastolic blood pressure, along with significantly increased JT interval and a tendency towards increased QTc interval, indicating delayed left ventricular (LV) repolarization and perhaps arrhythmogenesis. Conversely, female, but not male, progeny exposed perinatally to CSA showed a delay in atrioventricular (AV) conduction, as demonstrated by significantly prolonged P duration and a tendency towards increased PR interval. CSA increased serum tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα) and decreased serum adiponectin levels and cardiac adiponectin receptor expression in male progeny, in contrast to no effects in female progeny. Signs of improved oxidative state (decreased 8-isoprostane and increased catalase activity) appeared only in CSA-exposed female rats. Moreover, cardiac muscle degeneration and pyknosis was more observed in male than in female rats. In brief, the sex plays a key role in determining the extent of the deterioration in functional and inflammatory states of the heart that follow perinatal CSA exposure in rats.