Abstract

Background: Diastolic heart failure is a common and deadly complication of diabetes mellitus, with the developmentof diabetic cardiomyopathy as one of the key determinants of the disease’s complex pathology. The cause of theassociation is unknown and has no approved therapy strategies as of yet. However significant advances in this areamay come from studies on suitable animal models.The changes in the imaging and physiological markers of spontaneous T2DM rhesus monkeys aresimilar to those key markers found in human type 2 diabetes and diastolic dysfunction. This monkey model could help the medical community and us to understand the pathology of this debilitating disease and serveas a beginning to explore important measures to prevent and treat diabetic cardiomyopathy.

Keywords: Diabetic cardiomyopathy, Animal models, Monkey.    

Fig. 1 Representative images of echo patterns of mitral inflow, pulmonary venous flow and mitral annulus velocity from normal to moderatediastolic dysfunction in rhesus monkeys

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