Morphological manifestations of heart remodeling in anthracycline-induced dilated cardiomyopathy.

The morphogenesis of anthracycline-induced dilated cardiomyopathy was studied after single sublethal dose of doxorubicin. Cardiomyocyte depopulation (up to 27%) and decrease in their regeneratory plastic reactions were the main mechanisms of cardiac failure development after anthracycline (doxorubicin) treatment, determining the type of heart remodeling by the dilatation variant. Cardiomyocyte elimination and atrophy during the development of anthracycline-induced regeneratory plastic cardiac insufficiency were paralleled by hypertrophy of remaining cardiomyocytes and diffuse and small focal sclerosis of the myocardium, which could be regarded as a correlated compensatory reaction of the connective tissue to the decrease in the number of muscle fibers.