Daniel T Eitzman

Vascular Photochemical Injury in the Mouse

The need for small animal models to study cardiovascular diseases has recently escalated with the advent of transgenic mouse technology. Advances in the transgenic mouse field have led to the production of numerous novel strains of mice with overexpression, targeted deletions, or replacement of selected genes of interest. The potential to uncover cause-and-effect relationships between the expression of virtually any gene in a whole animal and a measurable outcome is now a reality. Thus, mouse models designed to mimic the disease processes that occur in humans are extremely valuable. Because of the small size of the mouse cardiovascular system, downsizing of existing models or novel methods must be developed to study vascular disease in the mouse.