title: Improved surgical technique for heterotopic aortic transplantation in mice.
abstract: Transplant arteriosclerosis is the main limitation for long-term survival of solid organ transplant recipients. Animal models would provide invaluable tools to investigate the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of transplant arteriosclerosis, as well as for studies with novel drugs and other reagents for the prevention of the disease. We have therefore developed a modified technique for aortic transplantation in mice. The central suture ligation of the recipient abdominal aorta allowed a simpler end-to-side anastomosis of a segment of the donor thoracic aorta into the infrarenal portion of the recipient abdominal aorta. Using this technique, the overall survival rate was 94%. We also observed typical aspects of chronic rejection of the aortic allografts not observed with isografts. Our new technique is relatively easy to perform and has a low incidence of thrombosis, thus being useful for studying various aspects of transplant arteriosclerosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Ulsan University Hospital, School of Medicine, University of Ulsan, Ulsan, Korea. hrcho@uuh.ulsan.kr
authors.forename: Hong Rae
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: Jae Hee
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Suh
authors.forename: Eun A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Jeong-Eun
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Sang-Chul
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Byungsuk
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kwon
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001011:Aorta / Q000637:transplantation*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D016042:Transplantation, Heterotopic