Botany JoVE (Open Access) Citable · DOI

Murine Heterotopic Heart Transplant Technique

Name: Murine Heterotopic Heart Transplant Technique
Uploaded: 2026-06-17
Duration: 10 min 27 s
Description: It is now over forty years since this technique was first reported by Corry, Wynn and Russell. Although it took some years for other labs to become ...

DOI: 10.3791/51511-v

What you'll learn

✓ Perform donor heart harvest with intact coronary perfusion
✓ Execute heterotopic heart transplantation in recipient mouse
✓ Assess graft viability and functional parameters post-implantation
✓ Evaluate CD4+ T cell-mediated cardiac allograft rejection mechanisms

Protocol

The manuscript describes the steps required to perform the heterotopic heart transplant in the mouse.

Difficulty

advanced

Total time

~3-4 hours per transplant pair (donor + recipient surgery)

Model organism

Mouse (strain not specified in abstract)

Biosafety

BSL-1

Steps

Harvest donor heart with perfusion integrity

Isolate and extract the donor heart while maintaining coronary blood flow and tissue viability for transplantation.

▶ 01:05

Implant graft and assess cardiac function

Place harvested heart into recipient mouse abdomen via heterotopic transplantation and evaluate graft perfusion and contractility.

▶ 04:07

Analyze CD4+ T cell rejection pathways

Examine perforin and Fas-mediated mechanisms of allograft rejection in CD4+ T cell-dependent cardiac transplant rejection.

▶ 09:10

💬 Comments coming soon