Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 19, 2026
Modified Heterotopic Abdominal Heart Transplantation and a Novel Aortic Regurgitation Model in Rats
Published on: June 2, 2023
[Experiences of establishing an abdominal heart transplantation model in rats]
Hao Chen1, Yun-qing Mei, Michael A Solomon
1Department of Surgery, Huadong Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200040, China.
Objective:
To review the experiences and key factors of establishing an abdominal cardiac transplantation model in rats at National Institutes of Health Clinical Center.
Methods:
Dark Agouti rats served as donor while Brown Norway rats as recipient. Cardiac transplantations were performed with a modified version of heterotopic cardiac transplantation. Proficiency was defined as 20 consecutive operations with < 15% mortality and no significant major co-morbidities.
Results:
We performed 10 donor harvest-alone operations and 70 transplantations to reach the proficiency level. The survival rate of the last 20 consecutive surgeries was 95%. The mean total operative duration was 55 min and mean ischemic time of donor hearts 35 min.
Conclusion:
To ensure a consistently high operative success rate, a surgeon must not only be proficient in micro-surgical skills, but also closely follow the standardized training procedures and strictly observe the animal care and use guidelines.
