Methods employed for induction and analysis of experimental myocardial infarction in mice

Myocardial ischemia und subsequent reperfusion is followed by a complex sequence of pathophysiological responses involving inflammatory cell infiltration and cytokine release as well as postinfarction wound healing and myocardial tissue remodeling. With the development of gene targeted mice the contribution of individual gene products to the pathophysiology of myocardial ischemia and reperfusion can be defined leading to an increasing interest in the widely-used mouse model of myocardial infarction. This methological paper describes in detail the required equipment, surgical instruments, drugs and additional material, the methods of anesthesia and analgesia, the procedures involved in preparation of the animal, tracheotomy, intubation, thoracotomy, occlusion of the left descending artery, removal of the heart, determination of infarct size, analysis of cardiac functional parameters with echocardiography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as well as determination of the morphological consequences utilizing gelatin zymography, histology and immunohistochemistry.