title: Quantitative comparison of myocardial fiber structure between mice, rabbit, and sheep using diffusion tensor cardiovascular magnetic resonance.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Accurate interpretations of cardiac functions require precise structural models of the myocardium, but the latter is not available always and for all species. Although scaling or substitution of myocardial fiber information from alternate species has been used in cardiac functional modeling, the validity of such practice has not been tested.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fixed mouse (n = 10), rabbit (n = 6), and sheep (n = 5) hearts underwent diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). The myocardial structures in terms of the left ventricular fiber orientation helix angle index were quantitatively compared between the mouse rabbit and sheep hearts.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results show that significant fiber structural differences exist between any two of the three species. Specifically, the subepicardial fiber orientation, and the transmural range and linearity of fiber helix angles are significantly different between the mouse and either rabbit or sheep. Additionally, a significant difference was found between the transmural helix angle range between the rabbit and sheep. Across different circumferential regions of the heart, the fiber orientation was not found to be significantly different.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The current study indicates that myocardial structural differences exist between different size hearts. An immediate implication of the present findings for myocardial structural or functional modeling studies is that caution must be exercised when extrapolating myocardial structures from one species to another.
authors: Department of Bioengineering, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. lindsey@sci.utah.edu
authors: Lindsey J
authors: LJ
authors: Healy
authors: Yi
authors: Y
authors: Jiang
authors: Edward W
authors: EW
authors: Hsu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000166:cytology*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D057507:Mice, 129 Strain; D032383:Myocytes, Cardiac; D011817:Rabbits; D012756:Sheep; D013045:Species Specificity; D016707:Tissue Fixation