Methods and Apparatus for Minimally Invasive Transverse Aortic Banding: a Useful Tool in the Study of Pathophysiology and Treatment of Pressure-Overload Cardiac Hypertrophy

The present invention provides a curved suture applicator to enable a surgeon to efficiently encircle a target tissue such as a blood vessel with a suture or thread, and a minimally invasive ligation method that utilizes the curved suture applicator to efficiently band the transverse aorta of small mammals for producing left ventricular (LV) pressure overload. With the use of the invented methods and apparatus, one can quickly and reproducibly band the transverse aorta with low surgical morbidity and mortality. Minimally invasive transverse aortic banding (MTAB) acutely and chronically increased LV systolic pressure, increased heart weight-to-body weight ratio, and induced myocardial fibrosis. Such banding is useful in studying and simulating the effects of left ventricular hypertrophy as it relates to congenital heart failure.

Benefits
Heart disease is American�s No. 1 killer. To study heart disease, it is of particular interest to monitor the response of animals to increased cardiac work. However, the current available model of transverse aortic constriction in mouse is limited in use because of the technical difficulty and high expense associated with the surgical procedure.

This invention provides a minimally invasive technique to quickly and reproducibly produce left ventricular pressure overload with low surgical morbidity and mortality in small mammals. The inventors have used this technique to show that reduced insulin signaling in the heart altered the cardiac response to pressure overload in mice. Therefore, the use of the MTAB approach should facilitate the study of the pathophysiology and treatment of pressure-overload hypertrophy.

Stage of Development
A formal patent application has been filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The application is pending, as Publication No. US-2005-0038450-A1. This technology is available for developmental research support/licensing under either exclusive or non-exclusive terms.

Additional Info
*Hu P, Zhang D, Swenson L, Chakrabarti G, Abel ED, Litwin SE. (2003) Minimally invasive aortic banding in mice: effects of altered cardiomyocyte insulin signaling during pressure overload. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. 285(3):H1261-9.
*http://uuhsc.utah.edu/cardio/FacultyDirectory/Litwin.html

Inventor(s): LeAnne Swenson, Sheldon Litwin, DongFang Zhang, Ping Hu

Type of Offer: Licensing



« More Medical Patents

---