A Murine Model for Viable Right-Ventricular Myocardial Mechanical Behavior

Although right-ventricular (RV) function is an important determinant of cardio-pulmonary performance in health and disease, RV myocardium biomechanical function has received little attention. In particular, no multiaxial data of the full-thickness RV have been reported for the passive or active myocardial states, for either normal or pathological conditions. Since an understanding of tissue-level biomechanical behavior is integral to connecting cellular behavior to organ-level performance, investigations into the RV myocardial stress-strain relationship are central in providing this link. For example, ventricular wall stress is considered to be a major driver of ventricular remodeling, and thus a better understanding of how wall stress and deformation are linked would provide unique insights into the mechanisms of RV function and ultimately failure in disease. Such knowledge would have direct applicability to improving methods to detect RV dysfunction, predicting response to disease-specific therapies and improving the timing of therapy if or when needed. Here, we present a murine model of viable RVFW to obtain stable and robust mechanical data suitable for structural modeling. Our study determines the of window for viability of the RVFW samples, verifies uniformity of the structure, and carries biomechanical testing to determine stability and consistency of the data.