Mouse Cardiac Physiology and Surgical Core (Core C)

Abstract The mouse is a powerful model organism for dissecting the underlying molecular and genetic mechanisms leading to heart failure or cellular loss with ischemic injury. The mouse will be the basis for all gene-disease relationship studies proposed in all 4 Projects in the proposed Program. Core C will produce models of cardiac injury in a systematic manner to ensure reproducibility and comparability across all 4 Projects so that results are not influenced by model variability. Mice will be shipped as needed between Dallas and Cincinnati for the proposed model production and analyses. The heart disease phenotype will also be extensively analyzed in Core C, such as structure and functional assessment, which will also be performed in a controlled and reproducible manner between the 4 projects, Core C will provide mouse models of ischemia-reperfusion injury (I/R), myocardial infarction injury (MI), cardiac pressure overload induced by transverse aortic constriction (TAC), and apical resection of the early neonatal mouse heart. For phenotypic analysis of these mouse models, Core C will perform echocardiography, invasive hemodynamics using a pressure sensing intraventricular catheter, and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). All 4 Projects will extensively use Core C, both the surgical model generation capabilities and the functional assessment capabilities. Highly skilled core personnel will ensure surgical consistency as well as data integration, uniformity, and transparency across the 4 Projects. Core C approaches and services are essential for cardiovascular structure and function analyses and will provide an indispensable foundation and common linking point