The Sydney Heart Bank: improving translational research while eliminating or reducing the use of animal models of human heart disease.

ABSTRACT: The Sydney Heart Bank (SHB) is one of the largest human heart tissue banks in existence. Its mission is to provide high-quality human heart tissue for research into the molecular basis of human heart failure by working collaboratively with experts in this field. We argue that, by comparing tissues from failing human hearts with age-matched non-failing healthy donor hearts, the results will be more relevant than research using animal models, particularly if their physiology is very different from humans. Tissue from heart surgery must generally be used soon after collection or it significantly deteriorates. Freezing is an option but it raises concerns that freezing causes substantial damage at the cellular and molecular level. The SHB contains failing samples from heart transplant patients

SUBMITTER: Dos Remedios CG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5578936 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature