Evaluation of Cardiovascular Function In Vivo in Mice During Pre- and Postnatal Development
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Genetic mouse models have yielded remarkable insights into the gene products that control embryonic cardiovascular development, and have proven useful as models of human disease because mice often display similar cardiovascular pathology when human genetic mutations are replicated. Disrupting important cardiovascular genes often has marked consequences on cardiovascular structure and function in embryos, fetuses, and neonates. Indeed, it is often necessary to establish the phenotype in embryos or neonates because most or all may die before adulthood or even before birth. However, technology to assess murine cardiovascular function in utero, when body size is only a few mm, is very limited. We are using a broad repertoire of techniques to quantitatively evaluate cardiovascular development and function during prenatal and postnatal development in mice. Our emphasis is on non-invasive tools and tools that parallel those used clinically. This emphasis is to facilitate longitudinal studies and to maximize the clinical relevance of mutant mice as models for human disease.
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Click above to see the beating heart of a mouse embryo one day after the heart first starts to beat. The embryo is inside the amniotic cavity in the uterus. It was imaged through the skin of the anesthetized mother using micro-ultrasound at 9.5 days of gestation.
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Click above to see a slow motion movie of the beating heart of an adult mouse. Click on the speaker to hear the sound of the adult mouse heart in real time – it normally beats about 10 times per second. The heart sounds were obtained using a prototype mouse stethoscope by Dr. Louis-Gilles Durand and his group at the IRCM in Montreal.
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Similar to echocardiography in humans, micro-ultrasound is a safe, non-invasive way to evaluate fetal heart function during pregnancy, and postnatal heart function from birth to adulthood.
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