Real-Time Electrocardiogram Monitoring during Treadmill Training in Mice

Regular physical exercise is a major contributor to cardiovascular health, influencing various metabolic as well as electrophysiological processes. However, in certain cardiac diseases such as inherited arrhythmia syndromes, e.g., arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (ACM) or myocarditis, physical exercise may have negative effects on the heart leading to a proarrhythmogenic substrate production. Currently, the underlying molecular mechanisms of exercise-related proarrhythmogenic remodeling are largely unknown, thus it remains unclear which frequency, duration, and intensity of exercise can be considered safe in the context of disease(s). The proposed method allows to study proarrhythmic/antiarrhythmic effects of physical exercise by combining treadmill training with real-time monitoring of the ECG. Implantable telemetry devices are used to continuously record the ECG of freely moving mice over a period of up to 3 months both at rest and during treadmill training. Data acquisition software with its analysis modules is used to analyze basic ECG parameters such as heart rate, P wave duration, PR interval, QRS interval, or QT duration at rest, during and after training. Furthermore, heart rate variability (HRV) parameters and occurrence of arrhythmias are evaluated. In brief, this manuscript describes a step-by-step approach to experimentally explore exercise induced effects on cardiac electrophysiology, including potential proarrhythmogenic remodeling in mouse models.