Abstract
Currently, there is no large animal model of sustained limb ischemia suitable for testing novel angiogenic therapeutics for peripheral artery disease (PAD) such as drugs, genes, materials, or cells. We created a large animal model suitable for efficacy assessment of these therapies by testing 3 swine hind limb ischemia (HLI) variations and quantifying vascular perfusion, muscle histology, and limb function. Ligation of the ipsilateral external and bilateral internal iliac arteries produced sustained gait dysfunction compared to isolated external iliac or unilateral external and internal iliac artery ligations. Hyperemia-dependent muscle perfusion deficits, depressed limb blood pressure, arteriogenesis, muscle atrophy, and microscopic myopathy were quantifiable in ischemic limbs 6 weeks post-ligation. Porcine mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) engineered to express a reporter gene were visualized post-administration via positron emission tomography (PET) in vivo. These results establish a preclinical platform enabling better optimization of PAD therapies, including cellular therapeutics, increasing bench-to-bedside translational success.
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Abbreviations
- ABI:
-
Ankle-brachial index
- CT:
-
Computed tomography
- EIA:
-
External iliac artery
- FBS:
-
Fetal bovine serum
- 18F-MFBG:
-
18F-meta-fluorobenzylguanidine
- GH:
-
Growth hormone
- hNET:
-
Human norepinephrine transporter
- IGF-1:
-
Insulin-like growth factor 1
- IIA:
-
Internal iliac artery
- mGFP:
-
mTag green fluorescent protein
- MSC:
-
Mesenchymal stromal cell
- MRI:
-
Magnetic resonance imaging
- PAD:
-
Peripheral artery disease
- PBS:
-
Phosphate-buffered saline
- PET:
-
Positron emission tomography
- TOF MRA:
-
Time-of-flight magnetic resonance angiography
- HLI :
-
Hind limb ischemia
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Acknowledgements
We thank T3 Labs for swine experiment organization and technical expertise.
Funding
These data were generated with support of the Aronov Foundation, the Emory University Center for Systems Imaging Pilot Funding, the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under Award Numbers UL1TR002378 and TL1TR002382 (J.N.D), and R01HL140223 (R.D.L.). Experiments were performed in part using the Microscopy in Medicine Core (NIH grant P01HL095070) and the Emory Integrated Genomics Core (subsidized by the Emory University School of Medicine and additionally supported by NIH Award Number UL1TR002378). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the views of NIH.
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Conceptualization: JND and RDL. Formal analysis: JND, SCG, and NHK. Funding acquisition: JND and RDL. Investigation: JND, SCG, NHK, LW, RJV, and JNO. Methodology: JND, RJV, SHL, MMG, JNO, and RDL. Project administration: MMG and RDL. Resources: LW, SHL, and MMG. Supervision: RDL. Visualization: JND and JNO. Writing—original draft preparation: JND. Writing—review and editing: JND, SCG, NHK, LW, RJV, MMG, JNO, and RDL.
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No human studies were performed. All institutional and national guidelines for laboratory animal care and use were followed and approved by institutional committees at T3 Labs and Emory University for swine and rat studies, respectively.
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Deppen, J.N., Ginn, S.C., Kim, N.H. et al. A Swine Hind Limb Ischemia Model Useful for Testing Peripheral Artery Disease Therapeutics. J. of Cardiovasc. Trans. Res. 14, 1186–1197 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12265-021-10134-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12265-021-10134-8