Presence of Widened and Multiple Intercalated Discs in the Hypertrophied Canine Heart

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Abstract
Fresh tissues were taken for light microscopy from the trabeculae carneae at the right ventricular base, apex, left ventricular base, and apex of four normal canine hearts and nine whose pulmonary artery had been banded for 7 to 48 weeks. After banding, the width of the intercalated disc at the right base, 1.34 ± 0.10 µ (mean ± SE), was greater than at the right apex, 1.02 ± 0.09 µ (PPP2 at the right base and right apex than in the corresponding normals (P2 was greater at the right base than in the corresponding apex (P2 in either the left base or left apex of the experimental animals compared to controls. After banding the pulmonary artery, tension increases in the right ventricle and this stimulates a broadening of the folds of the discs and then triggers a mechanism for the formation of new sarcomeres, perhaps involving multiple intercalated discs.