The Vascular and Cardiac Function Core will provide services and training for COBRE and LSUHSC investigators who will use animal models of cardiovascular disease and/or in vivo technology to answer specific aims outlined in their projects.
The specific aims of this Core are: 1. To provide skilled personnel to assist and/or perform highly specialized surgical and technical procedures involving ultrasound imaging, radio telemetric recording of blood pressure, use of pressure-volume conductance catheters to assess cardiac structure and function, sympathetic nerve recording, microinjection procedures, vascular injury, cardiac ischemia and blood flow, and assessment of renal function; 2. To assist in producing models of hypertension, ischemia/reperfusion injury, vascular injury, atherosclerosis, diabetes, cerebral ischemia, acute kidney injury, volume overload and drug-induced cardiac damage from which tissues will be collected for histological, biochemical, genetic and/or proteomic analysis; 3. To conduct experiments and assist COBRE and LSUHSC investigators with the collection and interpretation of physiological data; 4. To educate investigators regarding potential uses of The Vascular and Cardiac Function Core resources to enhance their research objectives and provide avenues towards developing translational research projects. Investigators will have access to the core facilities to complete experimental protocols on their own or with the aid and supervision of the Core's technical staff. The core will also provide services for the design and development of new animal models for cardiovascular research. The services ofthe Core encompass; 1) ultrasound imaging, 2) measurement of blood pressure, heart rate, spontaneous baroreflex, and core body temperature by radio telemetry, 3) tail cuff analysis of blood pressure and heart rate, 4) cardiac left ventricular pressure-volume analysis, 5) CNS microinjection, 6) microdialysis, 7) nerve recording, 8) tissue collection, 9) blood flow analysis, 10) blood chemistry, and 11) assessment ofthe renal excretion of water and electrolytes. The state-of-the-art technology and experienced personnel provided by this Core will enhance the COBRE and University investigators progress towards acquisition of extramural funding.
With the exponentially increasing number of mouse and rat models of disease there is a dire need for reliable and flexible cardiovascular phenotyping cores. Investigators from diverse disciplines often lack the training necessary to determine the cardiovascular phenotype of mouse and rat models and rely more and more on core expertise to do so.
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