The Vascular and Cardiac Function Core

The Vascular and Cardiac Function Core will provide space, facilities, supervision and training for COBRE investigators who will use animal models of cardiovascular disease and/or in vivo technology to answer specific aims outlined in their research projects. The core provides skilled personnel to assist and/or perform highly specialized surgical and technical procedures involving ultrasound imaging, radio telemetric recording of cardiovascular parameters, the use of pressure-volume conductance catheters to assess cardiac structure and function, sympathetic nerve recording, microinjection procedures, vascular injury, cardiac ischemia and blood flow. The core also assists in producing models of hypertension, ischemia/reperfusion, vascular injury, atherosclerosis, diabetes, cerebral ischemia, volume overload and drug-induced cardiac damage from which tissues will be collected for histological, biochemical, genetic and/or proteomic analysis.

The core focuses to educate junior investigators regarding the potential uses of in vivo models to enhance their research objectives and provide avenues towards developing translational research projects.

This Core will be under the direction of Dr. Kurt Varner, who has over 20 years of experience in cardiovascular physiology and pharmacology. He will work closely with the junior and developing investigators in experimental design and data analysis and interpretation. Each investigator will have access to the core facilities to complete experimental protocols either on their own or with the aid and supervision of the Core’s technical staff. The core will also provide services for the design and development of new animal models for cardiovascular research. The services of the Core encompass; 1) ultrasound imaging, 2) radio telemetry, 3) cardiac pressure-volume analysis, 4) microinjection, 5) sympathetic nerve recording, 6) tissue collection, and 7) blood flow analysis.

The state-of-art technology and experienced personnel provided by this Core will enhance the COBRE investigators progress towards acquisition of extramural funding and will support the overall mission of the Cardiovascular Center of Excellence.

The project described was supported by grant number P20RR018766 from the National Center of Research Resources (NCRR), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily report the official view of NCRR or NIH.