Apolipoprotein E-knockout (ApoE-KO) mice develop advanced atherosclerotic lesions by 1 yr of age and have been well characterized pathologically and morphologically, but little is known regarding their cardiovascular physiology and hemodynamics. We used noninvasive Doppler ultrasound to measure aortic and mitral blood velocity and aortic pulse-wave velocity in 13-mo-old ApoE-KO and wild-type (WT) mice anesthetized with isoflurane. In other mice from the same colony, we measured systolic blood pressure, body weight, heart weight, cholesterol, and hematocrit. Heart rate and blood pressure were comparable (P = not significant) between ApoE-KO and WT mice, but significant decreases (P < 0.001) were found in body weight (-22%) and hematocrit (-11%), and significant increases were found in heart weight (+23%), aortic velocity (+60%), mitral velocity (+81%) (all P < 0.001), and pulse-wave velocity (+13%, P < 0.05). We also found inflections in the aortic arch velocity signal consistent with enhanced peripheral wave reflection. Thus ApoE-KO mice have phenotypic alterations in indexes of peripheral vascular resistance and compliance and significantly elevated cardiac outflow velocities and heart weight-to-body weight ratios.

The commonly used anesthetic agent, isoflurane (ISO), is a potent coronary vasodilator which could potentially be used in the assessment of coronary reserve, but its effects on coronary blood flow in mice are unknown. Coronary reserve is reduced by age, coronary artery disease, and other cardiac pathologies in man, and some of these conditions can now be modeled in mice. Accordingly, we used Doppler ultrasound to measure coronary flow velocity in mice anesthetized at low (1%) and at high (2.5%) levels of ISO to generate baseline (B) and elevated hyperemic (H) and Y and between A and O were significant (P < 0.01), while the differences in hyperemic velocities were not (P > 0.05). H/B was higher in old mice due to decreased baseline flow rather than increased hyperemic flow velocity. In contrast ApoE −/− mice have increased baseline and hyperemic velocities perhaps due to coronary lesions. The differences in baseline velocities between young and old mice could be due to age-related changes in basal metabolism or to differential sensitivity to isoflurane. We conclude that Doppler ultrasound combined with coronary vasodilation via isoflurane could provide a convenient and noninvasive method to estimate coronary reserve in mice, but also that care must be taken when assessing coronary flow in mice under isoflurane anesthesia because of its potent coronary vasodilator properties.

Aortic banding produces pressure overload cardiac hypertrophy in mice leading to decompensated heart failure in 4-8 wks, but the effects on coronary blood flow velocity and reserve are unknown. To determine whether coronary flow reserve (CFR) was reduced, we used noninvasive 20 MHz Doppler ultrasound to measure left main coronary flow velocity at baseline (B) and at hyperemia (H) induced by low (1%) and high (2.5%) concentrations of isoflurane gas anesthesia. Ten mice were studied before (Pre) and at 1d, 7d, 14d, and 21d after constricting the aortic arch to 0.4 mm diameter distal to the innominate artery. We also measured cardiac inflow and outflow velocities at the mitral and aortic valves and velocity at the jet distal to the aortic constriction. The pressure drop as estimated by 4V 2 at the jet was 51 ± 5.1 (mean ± SE) mmHg at 1d increasing progressively to 74 ± 5.2 mmHg at 21d. Aortic and mitral blood velocities were not significantly different after banding (p = NS), but CFR, as estimated by H/B, dropped progressively from 3.2 ± 0.3 before banding to 2.2 ± 0.4, 1.7 ± 0.3, 1.4 ± 0.2, and 1.1 ± 0.1 at 1d, 7d, 14d, and 21d respectively (all P < 0.01 vs Pre). There was also a significant and progressive increase the systolic/diastolic velocity ratio (0.17 Pre to 0.92 at 21d, all P < 0.01 vs Pre) suggesting a redistribution of perfusion from subendocardium to subepicardium. We show for the first time that CFR, as estimated by the hyperemic response to isoflurane and Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. NIH Public Access

Hartley CJ, Reddy AK, Madala S, Entman ML, Michael LH, Taffet GE. Doppler velocity measurements from large and small arteries of mice. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 301: H269 -H278, 2011. First published May 13, 2011; doi:10.1152/ajpheart.00320.2011With the growth of genetic engineering, mice have become increasingly common as models of human diseases, and this has stimulated the development of techniques to assess the murine cardiovascular system. Our group has developed nonimaging and dedicated Doppler techniques for measuring blood velocity in the large and small peripheral arteries of anesthetized mice. We translated technology originally designed for human vessels for use in smaller mouse vessels at higher heart rates by using higher ultrasonic frequencies, smaller transducers, and higher-speed signal processing. With these methods one can measure cardiac filling and ejection velocities, velocity pulse arrival times for determining pulse wave velocity, peripheral blood velocity and vessel wall motion waveforms, jet velocities for the calculation of the pressure drop across stenoses, and left main coronary velocity for the estimation of coronary flow reserve. These noninvasive methods are convenient and easy to apply, but care must be taken in interpreting measurements due to Doppler sample volume size and angle of incidence. Doppler methods have been used to characterize and evaluate numerous cardiovascular phenotypes in mice and have been particularly useful in evaluating the cardiac and vascular remodeling that occur following transverse aortic constriction. Although duplex ultrasonic echo-Doppler instruments are being applied to mice, dedicated Doppler systems are more suitable for some applications. The magnitudes and waveforms of blood velocities from both cardiac and peripheral sites are similar in mice and humans, such that much of what is learned using Doppler technology in mice may be translated back to humans. peripheral vascular flow; pulse wave velocity; coronary flow reserve; transverse aortic constriction; pressure overload hypertrophy THIS REVIEW ARTICLE is part of a collection on Assessing Cardiovascular Function in Mice: New Developments and Methods. Other articles appearing in this collection, as well as a full archive of all Review collections, can be found online at http://ajpheart.physiology.org/.The ability to alter the genotype of the mouse has produced numerous models for studying cardiovascular physiology and pathophysiology and has generated a need to evaluate the changes that occur in mice during phenotypic development and maturation (8). The genetic manipulations can alter the structure, anatomy, pathology, and physiology of cells, organs, or systems in ways that can be subtle and unpredictable and that often change with time (6, 33). The major problems in adapting existing methods for use in mice relate to the small size and high heart rates that place extreme demands on both spatial and temporal resolution (10). We will focus here on noninvasive ultrasonic Doppler methods, w...

Despite the extensive use of genetically altered mice to study cardiovascular physiology and pathology, it remains difficult to quantify arterial function noninvasively in vivo. We have developed a noninvasive Doppler method for quantifying vessel wall motion in anesthetized mice. A 20-MHz probe was held by an alligator clip and positioned over the carotid arteries of 16 mice, including six 3- to 5-mo-old wild-type (WT), four 30-mo-old senescent (old), two apolipoprotein E null (ApoE), and four alpha-smooth muscle actin null (alpha-SMA) mice. Doppler signals were obtained simultaneously from both vessel walls and from blood flow. The calculated displacement signals from the near and far walls were subtracted to generate a diameter signal from which the excursion and an augmentation index were calculated. The excursion ranged between 13 microm (in ApoE) and 95 microm (in alpha-SMA). The augmentation index was lowest in the WT mice (0.06) and highest in the old mice (0.29). We conclude that Doppler signal processing may be used to measure vessel wall motion in mice with high spatial and temporal resolution and that diameter signals can replace pressure signals for calculating the augmentation index. This noninvasive method is able to identify and confirm characteristic changes in arterial properties previously associated with age, atherosclerosis, and the absence of vascular tone.