Induction of atrial fibrillation in mice by rapid transesophageal atrial pacing

Objective: Atrial fibrillation (AF) as an “indicator arrhythmia” for enhanced atrial vulnerability in mouse hearts has not yet been systematically examined. We therefore evaluated a transesophageal rapid atrial stimulation protocol for the induction of AF in C57Bl/6 mice. Methods: 40 C57Bl/6 mice (19 female and 21 male; 5.2 ± 2.1 months; 18 – 27 g) were examined by closed chest transesophageal atrial stimulation. Baseline ECG and electrophysiological parameters, AF-inducing stimulation cycle length (CL) and AF duration were analyzed. Results: The surface ECG demonstrated a significantly faster heart rate in female mice (R-R: 138.7 ± 19.9 ms versus 150.5 ± 15.7 ms, P < 0.05). AF was inducible in 90 % of the population and not inducible in 4 mice, all female (21 % in this subgroup). Mean induction CL was 27.4 ± 7.3 ms. Mean AF duration was 26.9 ± 42.6 s before spontaneous termination. In a subgroup of 4 female and 4 male mice (mean age 7.5 months), successive testing of AF induction showed a range of higher susceptibility to AF at stimulus amplitudes of 3.0 – 4.0 mA and stimulation CLs between 15 – 25 ms. AF induction was observed to be constantly reproducible in the individual animals. No correlation to pacing stimulus length and amplitude was found. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that it is possible to reproducibly induce self-terminating AF and supraventricular arrhythmias in mice by transesophageal atrial burst stimulation. The presented method allowing serial testings of the same animal can be a useful tool in further investigations with transgenic mice and might be helpful in the characterization of underlying genetic or molecular mechanisms of AF.