An anatomical study on the branching patterns of left coronary artery in the rats

Ahn, Dong-Choon; Kim, In-Shik

Korean Journal of Veterinary Research 2007;47(1):7-17.

¹School of Veterinary Medicine, Chonbuk National University
²College of Veterinary Medicine, Kangwon National University

흰쥐 왼쪽관상동맥의 분지 양상에 관한 해부학적 연구

안동춘¹, 김인식²

¹강원대학교 수의학부
²전북대학교 수의과대학

Abstract

The left main descending artery (LMDA) of left coronary artery (LCA) in rats runs around the left side of conus arteriosus after arising from the aortic sinus and descends to the apex of heart with branching several branches into the wall of left ventricle (LV). The ligation site of LMDA for myocardial infarction (MI) is the 2~4 mm from LCA origin, between the pulmonary trunk and left auricle. The characteristics that rat heart has no interventricular groove on the surface and its coronary arteries run intramyocardially with branching several branches give the difficulty in surgery for MI which resulted in expected size. This study was aimed to elucidate the branching patterns of the left coronary artery for analysis of MI size and for giving the basic data to producing small MI intentionally in 2 male species that are widely used, Sprague-Dowley (SD) and Wistar-Kyoto (WKY), in the world. Red latex casting was followed by the microdissection in 27 and 28 hearts of SD and WKY male rats, respectively. The branching patterns of LMDA were classified into 3 major types and others based on the left ventricular branches (L). The Type I, Type II, Type III and others are shown in 55.6%, 22.2%, 14.8%, and 7.4% in SD, 60.7%, 10.7%, 7.1%, and 21.5% in WKY, respectively. The branching number of the first left ventricular branch (L1) that are distribute the upper one third of LV was 1.2~1.5, and its branching sites were ranging 0.9~2.1 ßÆ from LCA origin. L2, the second left ventricular branch distributing middle one third of LV, was the number of 1.2~1.4 and branching out ranging 5.1~5.7 mm. L3, the third left ventricular branch of LMDA distributing lower one third of LV, was the number of 1~1.5 and branching out ranging 7.0~9.3 mm from LCA origin. The common branch of L1 and L2 was branched from LMDA with the number of 1.1, and its site was located in the distance of mean of 1.5 mm and 2.8 mm in SD and WKY, respectively. The common branch of L2 and L3 was branched from LMDA with the number of 1, and its site was located in the distance of mean of 7.2 mm and 2.9 mm in SD and WKY, respectively. The right ventricular branches (R) of LMDA were short and branched in irregularly compared with L. The number of 1~4 of R were branched from LMDA. With regarding to the distribution area of L and the ligation site for MI, moderate MI (25~35% of LV) might be resulted in 70.4% and 60.7% in SD and WKY rats. Small MI might be produced intentionally if the ligation would be located at the 4~6 mm from LCA origin in the left side of LMDA. These data wold be helpful to expect the size of MI and to reproduce of small MI, intentionally, in rat hearts.

Key Words: branching pattern, heart, left coronary artery, myocardial infarction, rat