Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Center for Cardiovascular Research, College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago.
Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Center for Cardiovascular Research, College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago;
J Vis Exp. 2022 Apr 7(182). doi: 10.3791/63539.
Echocardiography is a non-invasive procedure that enables the evaluation of structural and functional parameters in animal models of cardiovascular disease and is used to assess the impact of potential treatments in preclinical studies. Echocardiographic studies are usually conducted in young adult mice (i.e., 4-6 weeks of age). The evaluation of early neonatal cardiovascular function is not usually performed because of the small size of the mouse pups and the associated technical difficulties. One of the most important challenges is that the short length of the pups' limbs prevents them from reaching the electrodes in the echocardiography platform. Body temperature is the other challenge, as pups are very susceptible to changes in temperature. Therefore, it is important to establish a practical guide for performing echocardiographic studies in small mouse pups to help researchers detect early pathological changes and study the progression of cardiovascular disease over time. The current work describes a protocol for performing echocardiography in mouse pups at the early age of 7 days old. The echocardiographic characterization of cardiac morphology, function, and coronary flow in neonatal mice is also described.
超声心动图是一种非侵入性的程序，可以评估心血管疾病动物模型的结构和功能参数，用于评估临床前研究中潜在治疗方法的影响。超声心动图研究通常在年轻成年小鼠（即 4-6 周龄）中进行。由于幼鼠的体型较小，以及相关的技术困难，通常不会进行早期新生儿心血管功能的评估。其中一个最重要的挑战是，幼鼠的四肢较短，无法触及超声心动图平台上的电极。体温也是另一个挑战，因为幼鼠对体温变化非常敏感。因此，建立一个在小幼鼠中进行超声心动图研究的实用指南非常重要，这有助于研究人员检测早期病理变化，并研究心血管疾病随时间的进展。目前的工作描述了一种在 7 天大的幼鼠中进行超声心动图的方案。还描述了对新生小鼠心脏形态、功能和冠状动脉血流的超声心动图特征。
