Morphological and Functional Evaluation of Murine Heterotopic Cardiac Grafts Using Ultrasound Biomicroscopy

Zhou, Yu-Qing; Bishay, Rami; Feintuch, Akiva; Tao, Kesheng; Golding, Fraser; Zhu, Wei; West, Lori J.; Henkelman, R. Mark

doi:10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2006.10.016

« Previous Next »Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology
Volume 33, Issue 6 , Pages 870-879, June 2007

Morphological and Functional Evaluation of Murine Heterotopic Cardiac Grafts Using Ultrasound Biomicroscopy

Yu-Qing Zhou
- Mouse Imaging Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Address correspondence to: Yu-Qing Zhou, PhD, Mouse Imaging Centre, The Hospital for Sick Children, 555 University Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5G 1X8.
Rami Bishay
- Department of Infection, Immunity, Injury and Repair, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Akiva Feintuch
- Mouse Imaging Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Kesheng Tao
- Department of Infection, Immunity, Injury and Repair, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- L. J. West and K. Tao are now at the Department of Pediatrics and Surgery, Heart Transplantation Research, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, 1-130A, Dentistry-Pharmacy Centre, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2N8.
Fraser Golding
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Wei Zhu
- Cardiovascular Research Program, The Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Lori J. West
- Department of Infection, Immunity, Injury and Repair, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- L. J. West and K. Tao are now at the Department of Pediatrics and Surgery, Heart Transplantation Research, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, 1-130A, Dentistry-Pharmacy Centre, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2N8.
R. Mark Henkelman
- Mouse Imaging Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Received 12 June 2006; received in revised form 21 October 2006; accepted 26 October 2006. published online 19 April 2007.

Abstract

This study investigated the use of an ultrasound biomicroscope (UBM) to observe murine heterotopic cardiac transplants. By using an UBM (30 MHz), cardiac isografts in eight mice were studied on days 1, 5, 14 and 50 posttransplantation. The same method was tested in allografts in two mice on days 1, 5, 7 and 9. Two-dimensional imaging delineated the graft structures with high spatial resolution. In isografts, M-mode recording showed gradually decreased left ventricular (LV) wall thickness and chamber dimension, but increased LV fractional shortening. Doppler sampling measured blood velocities from the ascending aorta, left coronary artery (LCA), aortic and mitral orifices of grafts. In isografts, LCA forward flow caused by native circulation to perfuse the graft myocardium increased from day 1 to 5, then moderately decreased by day 14 and stabilized thereafter. In allografts, LCA forward flow sharply decreased to almost zero between day 5–9. Therefore, UBM is a reliable method for following the survival status of cardiac grafts in mice. (E-mail: yqzhou@phenogenomics.ca)

Key Words: Mice, Cardiac transplant, High frequency ultrasound, Doppler