TY  - JOUR
A1  - Schreiber, Laura M.
A1  - Lohr, David
A1  - Baltes, Steffen
A1  - Vogel, Ulrich
A1  - Elabyad, Ibrahim A.
A1  - Bille, Maya
A1  - Reiter, Theresa
A1  - Kosmala, Aleksander
A1  - Gassenmaier, Tobias
A1  - Stefanescu, Maria R.
A1  - Kollmann, Alena
A1  - Aures, Julia
A1  - Schnitter, Florian
A1  - Pali, Mihaela
A1  - Ueda, Yuichiro
A1  - Williams, Tatiana
A1  - Christa, Martin
A1  - Hofmann, Ulrich
A1  - Bauer, Wolfgang
A1  - Gerull, Brenda
A1  - Zernecke, Alma
A1  - Ergün, Süleyman
A1  - Terekhov, Maxim
T1  - Ultra-high field cardiac MRI in large animals and humans for translational cardiovascular research
JF  - Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine
N2  - A key step in translational cardiovascular research is the use of large animal models to better understand normal and abnormal physiology, to test drugs or interventions, or to perform studies which would be considered unethical in human subjects. Ultrahigh field magnetic resonance imaging (UHF-MRI) at 7 T field strength is becoming increasingly available for imaging of the heart and, when compared to clinically established field strengths, promises better image quality and image information content, more precise functional analysis, potentially new image contrasts, and as all in-vivo imaging techniques, a reduction of the number of animals per study because of the possibility to scan every animal repeatedly. We present here a solution to the dual use problem of whole-body UHF-MRI systems, which are typically installed in clinical environments, to both UHF-MRI in large animals and humans. Moreover, we provide evidence that in such a research infrastructure UHF-MRI, and ideally combined with a standard small-bore UHF-MRI system, can contribute to a variety of spatial scales in translational cardiovascular research: from cardiac organoids, Zebra fish and rodent hearts to large animal models such as pigs and humans. We present pilot data from serial CINE, late gadolinium enhancement, and susceptibility weighted UHF-MRI in a myocardial infarction model over eight weeks. In 14 pigs which were delivered from a breeding facility in a national SARS-CoV-2 hotspot, we found no infection in the incoming pigs. Human scanning using CINE and phase contrast flow measurements provided good image quality of the left and right ventricle. Agreement of functional analysis between CINE and phase contrast MRI was excellent. MRI in arrested hearts or excised vascular tissue for MRI-based histologic imaging, structural imaging of myofiber and vascular smooth muscle cell architecture using high-resolution diffusion tensor imaging, and UHF-MRI for monitoring free radicals as a surrogate for MRI of reactive oxygen species in studies of oxidative stress are demonstrated. We conclude that UHF-MRI has the potential to become an important precision imaging modality in translational cardiovascular research.
KW  - ultrahigh-field MRI
KW  - large animal models
KW  - translational research
KW  - research infrastructure
KW  - heart
KW  - organoid
KW  - pig
KW  - cardiovascular MRI
Y1  - 2023
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-317398
SN  - 2297-055X
VL  - 10
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Gergs, Ulrich
A1  - Jahn, Tina
A1  - Schulz, Nico
A1  - Großmann, Claudia
A1  - Rueckschloss, Uwe
A1  - Demus, Uta
A1  - Buchwalow, Igor B.
A1  - Neumann, Joachim
T1  - Protein phosphatase 2A improves cardiac functional response to ischemia and sepsis
JF  - International Journal of Molecular Sciences
N2  - Reversible protein phosphorylation is a posttranslational modification of regulatory proteins involved in cardiac signaling pathways. Here, we focus on the role of protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) for cardiac gene expression and stress response using a transgenic mouse model with cardiac myocyte-specific overexpression of the catalytic subunit of PP2A (PP2A-TG). Gene and protein expression were assessed under basal conditions by gene chip analysis and Western blotting. Some cardiac genes related to the cell metabolism and to protein phosphorylation such as kinases and phosphatases were altered in PP2A-TG compared to wild type mice (WT). As cardiac stressors, a lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced sepsis in vivo and a global cardiac ischemia in vitro (stop-flow isolated perfused heart model) were examined. Whereas the basal cardiac function was reduced in PP2A-TG as studied by echocardiography or as studied in the isolated work-performing heart, the acute LPS- or ischemia-induced cardiac dysfunction deteriorated less in PP2A-TG compared to WT. From the data, we conclude that increased PP2A activity may influence the acute stress tolerance of cardiac myocytes.
KW  - protein phosphorylation
KW  - PP2A
KW  - transgenic mice
KW  - heart
KW  - LPS
KW  - sepsis
KW  - ischemia
Y1  - 2022
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-284035
SN  - 1422-0067
VL  - 23
IS  - 9
ER  -