Modified Technique for the Use of Neonatal Murine Hearts in the Langendorff Preparation

The use of the ex-vivo retrograde perfused heart has long been a cornerstone of ischemia-reperfusion investigation since its development by Oskar Langendorff over a century ago. Although this technique has been applied to mice over the last 25 years, its use in this species has been limited to adult animals. Development of a successful method to consistently cannulate the neonatal murine aorta would allow for the systematic study of the isolated retrograde perfused heart during a critical period of cardiac development in a genetically modifiable and low-cost species. Modification of the Langendorff preparation enables cannulation and establishment of reperfusion in the neonatal murine heart while minimizing ischemic time. Optimization requires a two-person technique to permit successful cannulation of the newborn mouse aorta using a dissecting microscope and a modified commercially available needle. The use of this approach will reliably establish retrograde perfusion within 3 min. Because the fragility of the neonatal mouse heart and ventricular cavity size prevents direct measurement of intraventricular pressure generated using a balloon, use of a force transducer connected by a suture to the apex of the left ventricle to quantify longitudinal contractile tension is necessary. This method allows investigators to successfully establish an isolated constant-flow retrograde-perfused newborn murine heart preparation, permitting the study of developmental cardiac biology in an ex-vivo manner. Importantly, this model will be a powerful tool to investigate the physiological and pharmacological responses to ischemia-reperfusion in the neonatal heart.