The enormous advances in molecular biology and genetics coupled with the progress in instrumentation and surgical techniques have produced a voluminous and often bewildering quantity of data. The need for a second edition of Cardiovascular Physiology in the Genetically Engineered Mouse is underscored not only by these rapid advances, but by the increasing numbers of scientists who have focussed their research on genetically engineered mice. It is the primary objective of this second edition to interpret critically the literature and to provide a framework for the enormous amount of information in this burgeoning field. As in the first edition, the monograph serves as a practical guide for the investigator interested in the functional methods used to characterize the murine cardiovascular phenotype. However, this guidebook is a more comprehensive text than its predecessor; although the major objectives enumerated in the first edition have not substantially changed, they have been refined in keeping with the increased sophistication of the molecular biologist, geneticist, and physiologist in each other's discipline. Each chapter has been expanded and updated, richly enhanced with original tables and figures, and in many cases, extensively rewritten. Eight chapters written by internationally recognized experts have been added; this represents a 43 % increase from the first edition.
The enormous advances in molecular biology and genetics coupled with the progress in instrumentation and surgical techniques have produced a voluminous and often bewildering quantity of data. The primary objective of a second edition of "Cardiovascular Physiology in the Genetically Engineered Mouse" is to interpret critically the literature and to provide a framework for the enormous amount of information in this burgeoning field. As in the first edition, the monograph serves as a practical guide for the investigator interested in the functional methods used to characterize the murine cardiovascular phenotype.The monograph is organized into three parts. The first deals with principles of transgenesis and homologous recombination. The second part, which again is the largest, discusses the various techniques used to assess the cardiovascular mechanical, metabolic, and electrophysiologic phenotype. This section is organized in a hierarchical manner - i.e. from isolated myocyte to isolated heart to the intact, anesthetized and conscious mouse.
The third part examines techniques used to evaluate murine smooth muscle function, genetic mouse models of hypertrophy and heart failure, and the methods to assess the cardiovascular phenotype in the developing mouse embryo.In addition, newer methods that 'push the envelope', such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET), ultrasound biomicroscopy (UBM), and computed tomography (microCT) are discussed. Expanded and updated, each chapter is richly enhanced with original tables and figures, and in many cases, extensively rewritten when compared with the first edition. An essential and enduring goal of this second edition is to continue to facilitate interactions between the basic science disciplines and help bridge the gap between molecular biology and physiology.
