Percutaneous Contrast Echocardiography-guided Intramyocardial Injection and Cell Delivery in a Large Preclinical ModelAlejandro Giraldo *1, Jesús Talavera López *2, Maria Josefa Fernandez-Del-Palacio 2, Obdulio García-Nicolás 3,4, Juan Seva 4, Gavin Brooks 1, José María Moraleda 5
1Institute for Cardiovascular and Metabolic Research, School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, 2Departamento de Medicina y Cirugía Animal, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de Murcia, 3Institute of Virology and Immunology (IVI), 4Departamento de Anatomía y Anatomía Comparada, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de Murcia, 5Unidad de Trasplante Hematopoyético y Terapia Celular, Departamento de Hematología, Hospital Universitario Virgen de la Arrixaca, IMIB, Universidad de Murcia
Novel therapeutic strategies in cardiac regenerative medicine require extensive and detailed studies in large preclinical animal models before they can be considered for use in humans. Here, we demonstrate a percutaneous contrast echocardiography-guided intramyocardial injection technique in rabbits, which is valuable for hypothesis testing the efficacy of such novel therapies.