杏吧视频 researchers publish novel approach for assessing neonatal mouse heart function
The study may help clinicians identify congenital heart defects in, and develop treatments for, babies even before birth
Researchers in the Tucker Laboratory at the University of New England have published a novel exploration into the assessment of neonatal, or newborn, mouse heart function using a noninvasive approach to monitoring the electrocardiography (ECG) of baby mice (pups).
The publication in the Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE), was written in collaboration with current and past 杏吧视频 College of Osteopathic Medicine (COM) students, Kerry L. Tucker, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences, and Adrian Moran, M.D., a pediatric cardiologist at Maine Medical Center.
The paper presents a first-of-its-kind, noninvasive process for measuring the electrical activity of newborn mice with the goal of detecting congenital heart defects (CHD) in the tiny mammals as early as the first day after birth.
The process utilizes a device developed in partnership with Dover, New Hampshire-based physiology research and teaching firm iWorx. It employs ECG technology located inside a plastic platform. Four electrodes rise above the platform to measure the neonate鈥檚 heart activity while cushioned bumpers on either side of the mouse keep it steady. The entire unit, which is heated for the mouse鈥檚 comfort, is shielded from the light to protect the pup鈥檚 eyes while the ECG is performed.
The gentle technique has not been used before on neonatal mice, which are too small to undergo a typical ECG. Other methods exist for tracking heart activity in mice, but they often require anesthesia or use of a needle to measure electrical signals, which can be traumatic for newborn mice, regardless of CHD status.
鈥淭he newborn mice we study have a particular form of CHD that causes the pup to die within the first day of life,鈥 the researchers explained. 鈥淭his new technique allows us to monitor the electrical signals of the heart in order to understand why and how CHD changes the heartbeat in a way that is not compatible with life.鈥
The protocol, the collaboration of researchers write, was designed to directly address a need for a standardized and repeatable method for obtaining ECGs in newborn mice. Tucker, the 杏吧视频 professor, credits the protocol as being the brainchild of the study鈥檚 main research scientist Lindsey Fitzsimons, M.S., RCEP/CES, who is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Maine Graduate School of Biomedical Science and Engineering who is completing her doctoral thesis at the Tucker Lab.
Fitzsimons said she hopes the method and subsequent research manuscript will bridge a gap in the scientific and medical literature about the functional measurement of the heart in studies using mice.
鈥淭he reason we started trying to develop this technology was because I realized that of all the extensive research looking at congenital heart defects in mice, very few studies include measurements from the physiology, or function, of the CHD heart,鈥 she said.
Specifically, Fitzsimons added, she hopes to see an