title: Optimized Heart Sampling and Systematic Evaluation of Cardiac Therapies in Mouse Models of Ischemic Injury: Assessment of Cardiac Remodeling and Semi-Automated Quantification of Myocardial Infarct Size.
abstract: Cardiac therapies are commonly tested preclinically in small-animal models of myocardial infarction. Following functional evaluation, post-mortem histological analysis is essential to assess morphological and molecular alterations underlying the effectiveness of treatment. However, non-methodical and inadequate sampling of the left ventricle often leads to misinterpretations and variability, making direct study comparisons unreliable. Protocols are provided for representative sampling of the ischemic mouse heart followed by morphometric analysis of the left ventricle. Extending the use of this sampling to other types of in situ analysis is also illustrated through the assessment of neovascularization and cellular engraftment in a cell-based therapy setting. This is of interest to the general cardiovascular research community as it details methods for standardization and simplification of histo-morphometric evaluation of emergent heart therapies. © 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
authors.affiliation: i3S - Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal.|INEB - Instituto de Engenharia Biomédica, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal.|ICBAS - Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal.|Unit for Lymphopoiesis, Immunology Department, INSERM U668, University Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Cellule Pasteur, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Mariana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Valente
authors.affiliation: i3S - Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal.|INEB - Instituto de Engenharia Biomédica, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Araújo
authors.affiliation: i3S - Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal.|INEB - Instituto de Engenharia Biomédica, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal.|FEUP - Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Tiago
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Esteves
authors.affiliation: i3S - Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal.|INEB - Instituto de Engenharia Biomédica, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Tiago L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Laundos
authors.affiliation: i3S - Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal.|INEB - Instituto de Engenharia Biomédica, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal.|FEUP - Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal.|Department of Developmental and Regenerative Biology and The Black Family Stem Cell Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York.
authors.forename: Ana G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Freire
authors.affiliation: i3S - Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal.|INEB - Instituto de Engenharia Biomédica, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Pedro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Quelhas
authors.affiliation: i3S - Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal.|INEB - Instituto de Engenharia Biomédica, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal.|ICBAS - Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal.|Unit for Lymphopoiesis, Immunology Department, INSERM U668, University Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Cellule Pasteur, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Perpétua
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pinto-do-Ó
authors.affiliation: i3S - Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal.|INEB - Instituto de Engenharia Biomédica, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Diana S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Nascimento
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006321:Heart / Q000503:physiopathology*; D051379:Mice; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000503:physiopathology*
keywords: mouse-models of myocardial infarction; quantification of infarct size; representative heart sampling; software MIQuant; systematic evaluation of cardiac therapies