[Animal Modeling - Pharmacological Evaluation] - Other Congenital Heart Disease Models in Small Pigs

  1. Guerreiro et al. established a growing pig myocardial hypertrophy model using surgical methods. The experiment used 4-month-old pigs to establish aortic pulmonary artery shunting through surgery, and then raised them until 7 months of age. Four weeks after surgery, pulmonary artery pressure increased, with an average increase of 118%, and pulmonary blood flow reached 63%. At 7 months of age, pulmonary artery pressure and pulmonary blood flow reached 170% and 53% of normal control pigs, respectively. Dynamic observation at different time points after surgery showed an increase in heart weight, left and right ventricular myocardial hypertrophy, and histological observation also revealed significant myocardial hyperplasia. The author believes that this model is a human model of congenital abnormalities leading to myocardial hypertrophy during the growth phase.

  2. Xuegang et al. established a congenital heart disease model with low pulmonary blood flow. The experiment used 1-2 month old piglets and established a low pulmonary blood flow model by simulating pulmonary valve defect (ASD) through pulmonary artery ligation. The mild to moderate stenosis group had a systolic blood pressure attenuation of 20-30mmHg caused by pulmonary artery ligation, while the severe stenosis group had a systolic blood pressure attenuation of ≥ 30-50mmHg. The control group underwent sham surgery. The results indicate that pulmonary artery ligation can successfully establish an ASD model, which can be used for pathological and therapeutic studies of human congenital pulmonary valve defects.