A New and Practical Model of Human-Like Ascending Aorta Aneurysm in Rats

Introduction: Ascending aortic aneurysm is a serious health risk. In order to study ascending aortic aneurysms, elastase and calcium ion treatment for aneurysm formation are mainly used, but their aneurysm formation time is long and the aneurysm formation rate is low. Thus, this study aimed to construct a rat model of ascending aorta aneurysm with a short modeling time and high aneurysm formation rate, which may mimic the pathological processes of human ascending aorta aneurysm. Methods: Cushion needles with different pipe diameters (1.0, 1.2, 1.4, and 1.6 mm) were used to establish a human-like rat model of ascending aortic aneurysm by narrowing the ascending aorta of rats and increasing the force of blood flow on the vessel wall. The vascular diameters were evaluated using color Doppler ultrasonography after 2 weeks. The characteristics of ascending aortic aneurysm in rats were detected by Masson’s trichrome staining, Verhoeff’s Van Gieson staining, and hematoxylin and eosin staining, while real-time polymerase chain reaction was utilized to assess the total RNA of cytokine interleukin-1β, interleukin 6, transforming growth factor-beta 1, and metalloproteinase 2. Results: Two weeks after surgery, the ultrasound images and the statistical analysis demonstrated that the diameter of the ascending aorta in rats increased more than 1.5 times, similar to that in humans, indicating the success of animal modeling of ascending aortic aneurysm. Moreover, the optimal constriction diameter of the ascending aortic aneurysm model is 1.4 mm by the statistical analysis of the rate of ascending aortic aneurysm and mortality rate in rats with different constriction diameters. Conclusions: The human-like ascending aortic aneurysm model developed in this study can be used for the studies of the pathological processes and mechanisms of ascending aortic aneurysm in a more clinically relevant fashion.