New Charité 3R grant received for institute's project

A grant could be obtained in the Charité 3R. The title of the project is: "The isolated large animal heart as a tool to refine and reduce animal experiments in cardiovascular research".

Complex experimental research using cardiovascular implants in acute large animal models is usually a procedure of several hours and limited by the capability of the model to reproduce realistic hemodynamic  conditions.

In this project we propose the isolated large animal heart as a tool for cardiovascular research and refinement as well as reduction of animal experiments. Hearts from large anesthetized animals will be explanted in a procedure taking approx. 45min, vastly reducing the duration of the experiment for the live animal. By explanting hearts of animals from other experiments before inevitable euthanasia the amount of required experiments can be drastically reduced. This model offers the ability to adapt hemodynamic  parameters over the entire pathophysiologic range and provides unique insights into advanced cardiac mechanics. Its simple  accessibility  facilitates  the  application  of  innovative  methodologies  to  visualize  the ventricular flow field. In previous work we could reach excellent success rates (>90%), even for complex experimental approaches.

The  aim  of  this  project  is  to  establish  the  isolated  large  animal  heart, refining  animal experiments from the welfare and scientific point of view. This model permits for the first time the investigation of the complex interaction of cardiovascular implants with ventricular flow field and cardiac mechanics.

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