Development of an efficient mice model of cancer-associated cardiac cachexia.

BACKGROUND

Cancer-associated cardiac cachexia (CACC) refers to cardiac injury in cancer patients in a malignant state, but preclinical animal models remain inadequately developed.

METHODS

This study established CACC models in C57BL/6J and BALB/c mice using orthotopic, intra-abdominal, and hematogenous metastatic tumor induction. Multimodal cardiac assessments, including echocardiography, transmission electron microscopy for myocardial ultrastructural and mitochondrial analysis, and ex vivo cardiomyocyte contractility assays, were systematically applied.

RESULTS

Metastatic burden triggered CACC characterized by cardiac mass reduction, epicardial fat depletion, interstitial fibrosis, and electrocardiographic abnormalities. Histopathological analysis revealed cardiomyocyte atrophy, myofibrillar disarray, mitochondrial dysfunction, and ubiquitin-mediated Myh6 degradation via MuRF-1, accompanied by compensatory Myh7 upregulation. These findings mechanistically link tumor-induced cachexia to cardiac dysfunction through contractile protein remodeling.

CONCLUSION

This work establishes a preclinical framework for targeting ubiquitin pathways to mitigate the morbidity of cancer-related cardiopathy. Our integrated approach delineates a hierarchical progression from subcellular dysfunction to macroscopic cardiac deterioration.