Refined ex-vivo rodent heart model reduces in vivo experimentation

To use blood in the Langendorff settings one has to substantially reduce the volume of the circulation circuit. The perfusion volume of a standard Langendorff system is about 100 ml and the priming volume of the smallest commercially available oxygenator is 50 ml. Simple calculations indicate that about 10-12 rats or 60-70 mice have to be sacrificed to obtain the amount of blood required to perfuse a single heart. Washed erythrocytes of a difThe present project funded by the 3R Research Foundation focused on validation of a new multifunctional experimental model for the investigation of the responses of healthy and diseased hearts to acute stress or medication*. Based on the development of mini-oxygenators the ex-vivo isolated blood perfused rodent hearts can be used for studies