Cardiovascular diseases are among the leading causes of morbidity and mortality. Over the recent years, the underlying pathophysiology has been studied intensively and numerous advances have been achieved, for example by identifying potential drug targets. The translation from initial discovery to clinical application has been proven challenging. Potential pitfall in this translation is that the majority of studies has been performed in vitro or in vivo using rodents, and that these models may not always adequately resemble critical clinical features of human cardiovascular disease. Large animals could potentially circumvent this pitfall, and provide more relevant preclinical models for discovery and validation of therapeutic targets, provided that these models are well-characterized and resemble cardiovascular pathophysiology. Such models are required to catalyze the translation from bench to bedside through their potential to identify biomarkers of early disease, thereby facilitating risk stratification, and enabling prevention, (early) diagnosis and targeted treatment of cardiovascular diseases.
In the current Research Topic of Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine entitled “Cardiovascular Disease Modeling in Large Animals” we aim to provide a collection of articles emphasizing current advancements in large animal research. The reader should get an idea on large animal species available to study cardiovascular diseases, modern techniques to genetically modify large animals, how different disease triggers model cardiovascular disease as well as pros and cons of each approach.
We encourage authors to submit original research data, up-to-date review articles and protocols on methodological aspects. This call for papers is not dedicated to a specific large animal species or disease and we will also consider manuscripts on diseases predisposing to cardiovascular diseases such as diabetes or chronic kidney disease. Potential subjects include, but are not limited to:
Review of large animal models currently used to study cardiovascular diseases (e.g. methodology, advantages and disadvantages) including comparative studies on different species used for cardiovascular research;
Characterization of novel disease models or evaluation of novel aspects of known disease models;
Genetically modified large animals (e.g. technologies for generation, in vivo characterization, etc.), with emphasis on their potential to improve translation from bench to bedside;
Validation of basic or translational research findings in large animals;
Studies in preclinical large animal models investigating novel imaging techniques, interventional approaches, or drug therapy;
Description of methods (e.g. in vivo as well as ex vivo investigations, studies on large animal tissue or cells, etc.); and
Practical, ethical and legal issues in animal research studies especially in translational research (e.g. ethical considerations, drug development, governmental requirements for pre-clinical studies, designing and conducting translational clinical trials).
Cardiovascular diseases are among the leading causes of morbidity and mortality. Over the recent years, the underlying pathophysiology has been studied intensively and numerous advances have been achieved, for example by identifying potential drug targets. The translation from initial discovery to clinical application has been proven challenging. Potential pitfall in this translation is that the majority of studies has been performed in vitro or in vivo using rodents, and that these models may not always adequately resemble critical clinical features of human cardiovascular disease. Large animals could potentially circumvent this pitfall, and provide more relevant preclinical models for discovery and validation of therapeutic targets, provided that these models are well-characterized and resemble cardiovascular pathophysiology. Such models are required to catalyze the translation from bench to bedside through their potential to identify biomarkers of early disease, thereby facilitating risk stratification, and enabling prevention, (early) diagnosis and targeted treatment of cardiovascular diseases.
In the current Research Topic of Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine entitled “Cardiovascular Disease Modeling in Large Animals” we aim to provide a collection of articles emphasizing current advancements in large animal research. The reader should get an idea on large animal species available to study cardiovascular diseases, modern techniques to genetically modify large animals, how different disease triggers model cardiovascular disease as well as pros and cons of each approach.
We encourage authors to submit original research data, up-to-date review articles and protocols on methodological aspects. This call for papers is not dedicated to a specific large animal species or disease and we will also consider manuscripts on diseases predisposing to cardiovascular diseases such as diabetes or chronic kidney disease. Potential subjects include, but are not limited to:
Review of large animal models currently used to study cardiovascular diseases (e.g. methodology, advantages and disadvantages) including comparative studies on different species used for cardiovascular research;
Characterization of novel disease models or evaluation of novel aspects of known disease models;
Genetically modified large animals (e.g. technologies for generation, in vivo characterization, etc.), with emphasis on their potential to improve translation from bench to bedside;
Validation of basic or translational research findings in large animals;
Studies in preclinical large animal models investigating novel imaging techniques, interventional approaches, or drug therapy;
Description of methods (e.g. in vivo as well as ex vivo investigations, studies on large animal tissue or cells, etc.); and
Practical, ethical and legal issues in animal research studies especially in translational research (e.g. ethical considerations, drug development, governmental requirements for pre-clinical studies, designing and conducting translational clinical trials).
![Cardiac action potential in normal and ischemic myocardium. (Left) Action potential with depolarizing sodium (INa), transient outward potassium (Ito), calcium (ICa), and repolarizing potassium (IK) currents. (Right) During ischemia conduction is slowed, the resting membrane potential depolarized and action potential duration (APD) is shortened. [Na+]i, intracellular sodium concentration, [K+]o extracellular potassium concentration, IK,ATP, ATP-sensitive potassium current. Modified with permission after Sattler (7).](https://www.frontiersin.org/_rtmag/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.frontiersin.org%2Ffiles%2FArticles%2F474497%2Ffcvm-06-00158-HTML%2Fimage_m%2Ffcvm-06-00158-g002.jpg&w=3840&q=75)
