Shoichi Iida
Background: Methods for mouse vascularized heart transplantation using non-suture-cuff techniques have been described, but their delicate technique have prevented their widespread use. Here, we describe a simplified transplantation method with the cuff technique.
Methods: By ligating the vessels and tissues including parts of the lungs and trachea en bloc, except ascending aorta, superior and inferior vena cava, and main pulmonary artery, it was possible to reduce the time of harvesting the donor heart. In heart transplantation, using 10-0 Ethilon, it became to be easy to pass the common Carotid Artery (CA) through the cuff. And using the ascending aorta of the donor heart, it also became to be easy to cover the end of the CA and fix it to the arterial cuff.
Results: These modifications reduced the operating time. It typically takes 5 min to harvest the donor, 10 min to prepare the cervical vessels, and 15 min for anastomosis. All procedures, from donor harvest through skin closure in the recipient mice, can be completed within 40 min, and the cold ischemic time is less than 20 min.
Conclusions: This method can be used to investigate mechanisms of MHC-disparate heart transplantation.
