2023, Vol. 27 ›› Issue (5): 772-778

Construction and application of myocardial ischemia model in miniature pigs

Song Jian1, Zhao Lei2, Liu Aishi2   

Abstract: BACKGROUND: With the increasing prevalence and mortality of ischemic heart disease, it is very important to study the pathophysiological mechanism, diagnosis and treatment of myocardial ischemia. By constructing animal models, researchers can deeply understand the pathophysiological mechanisms, therapeutic effects and drug safety of myocardial ischemia.
OBJECTIVE: To summarize myocardial ischemia model methods so as to reveal the present situation and progress of myocardial ischemia animal models and to compare the advantages and disadvantages of various establishing methods, thereby providing reference for relevant clinical studies.
METHODS: The databases of CNKI, WanFang Data Knowledge Service Platform, PubMed and GeenMedical were searched by computer from January 2000 to December 2021 using the keywords of “myocardial ischemia; animal models; miniature pigs.” Finally, 52 articles were included for review analysis according to inclusion and exclusion criteria.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: At present, the clinical models of myocardial ischemia mainly include large animal species (dogs and pigs), rabbits, and rodents (rats and mice). Miniature pigs are the most ideal animal model donors for ischemic heart disease and have been widely used to prepare myocardial ischemia models. Among various methods for establishing acute myocardial ischemia models, open heart surgery and microcurrent stimulation have the characteristics of accurate positioning. Compared with the open thoracic surgery, closed thoracic surgery, drugs and microcurrent stimulation are simpler and more suitable for the clinical pathological process of acute myocardial ischemia. Moreover, the closed thoracic surgery that is minimally invasive and of high repeatability has become the preferred method. The main methods to construct the model of chronic myocardial ischemia include intima proliferation method, external chronic contraction method, microcirculation embolization method, high-fat diet method and subtotal ligation method. Microcirculation embolization can be used to explore the pathological mechanism of chronic myocardial ischemia caused by microcirculation disorders by blocking microvessels. In principle, both chronic extravascular contraction and subtotal ligation lead to chronic myocardial ischemia through extravascular mechanical compression, but subtotal ligation has a more controllable stenosis range and less damage to the natural structure of the vascular wall than chronic contraction. Intimal proliferation combined with high-fat diet is the most commonly used method to construct chronic myocardial ischemia model, as this combined method is closer to the clinical pathological mechanism of chronic coronary artery stenosis caused by atherosclerotic plaque.
Key words: ischemic heart disease, acute myocardial ischemia, chronic myocardial ischemia, animal model, modeling method, miniature pig, variety