Defining a new animal model of heart failure
Human heart failure is a multifactorial and heterogeneous clinical
syndrome that can be caused by numerous etiologies that lead to diverse
clinical manifestations in patients. Over the last several decades,
animal models of human heart failure have served as informative
experimental platforms to investigate the mechanisms, causes, and
progression of disease, and have led to important clinical trials and
novel therapies. From dogs to zebrafish to transgenic mice (and even
yeast!), animal models have provided critical insights into the cellular
and molecular derangements that lead to heart failure in humans. This
mini-review focuses on rodent models of heart failure, which are widely
used for drug screens and target validation 15,
22, 27 . Many of the current rodent models of heart failure are not
amenable to high-throughput screening approaches, either because they
are methodologically complex or have only a subtle cardiac phenotype. No
single animal model of heart failure can fully replicate the
complexities of human heart failure nor serve as the optimal
experimental platform, yet with the burgeoning epidemic of heart failure6, 19, 28, 39 , new drugs and new models are
needed. Recent advances in chemogenetics have led to the development of
new animal models that may provide important insights into human heart
failure pathophysiology and identify novel therapeutic targets.