Establishment of animal model for myocardial infarction and the application of non-invasive assessment of cardiac function

Objective To establish an animal model of myocardial infarction and to assess cardiac function by echocardiography.Methods Twenty male C57BL/6 mice were used into this study.The left anterior descending coronary artery was ligated after anesthesia and intubation under the microscope.The echocardiographic assessment of myocardial infarction and heart function was performed 1 d before and 4 week after operation.The left ventricular end systolic diameter(ESD),left ventricular end diastolic diameter(EDD),ejection fraction(EF) and shortening fraction(FS) were measured and analyzed.Results The acute mortality was 10%(2/20) during the model establishment and the four-week mortality was 10%(2/20).The echocardiography showed that the success rate of establishment of the infarction model was 75%(15/20).The heart function of the mice significantly decreased,ESD and EDD were increased significantly.Pathological examination confirmed the scar formation and the necrosis of cardiac myocytes.Conclusion Murine myocardial infarction model has been established successfully by ligation of left anterior descending coronary artery.