Brittain Evan, Penner Niki L, West James, Hemnes Anna
Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
J Vis Exp. 2013 Nov 27(81):50912. doi: 10.3791/50912.
Transgenic and toxic models of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) are widely used to study the pathophysiology of PAH and to investigate potential therapies. Given the expense and time involved in creating animal models of disease, it is critical that researchers have tools to accurately assess phenotypic expression of disease. Right ventricular dysfunction is the major manifestation of pulmonary hypertension. Echocardiography is the mainstay of the noninvasive assessment of right ventricular function in rodent models and has the advantage of clear translation to humans in whom the same tool is used. Published echocardiography protocols in murine models of PAH are lacking. In this article, we describe a protocol for assessing RV and pulmonary vascular function in a mouse model of PAH with a dominant negative BMPRII mutation; however, this protocol is applicable to any diseases affecting the pulmonary vasculature or right heart. We provide a detailed description of animal preparation, image acquisition and hemodynamic calculation of stroke volume, cardiac output and an estimate of pulmonary artery pressure.
肺动脉高压（PAH）的转基因和毒性模型被广泛用于研究PAH的病理生理学并调查潜在治疗方法。鉴于创建疾病动物模型涉及的费用和时间，研究人员拥有准确评估疾病表型表达的工具至关重要。右心室功能障碍是肺动脉高压的主要表现。超声心动图是啮齿动物模型中右心室功能无创评估的主要手段，并且具有可清晰转化至人类的优势，在人类中也使用相同的工具。PAH小鼠模型中缺乏已发表的超声心动图方案。在本文中，我们描述了一种用于评估具有显性负性BMPRII突变的PAH小鼠模型中右心室和肺血管功能的方案；然而，该方案适用于任何影响肺血管系统或右心的疾病。我们提供了动物准备、图像采集以及每搏输出量、心输出量的血流动力学计算和肺动脉压力估计的详细描述。
