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Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a leading cause of mortality worldwide1. Prevention and treatment of CVD require an in-depth understanding of molecular adaptations to biomechanical forces and the resulting changes in mechanical properties. Throughout the entire cardiovascular system, biomechanical forces play an important role in the function and structure of the tissue2. The mechanical properties of cardiovascular (CV) tissue are influenced by these forces, making them indicators of health and disease3,4,5,6. To prevent, diagnose, and treat CVD, it is crucial to develop methods for understanding and observing the processes of disease initiation and progression. Biomedical imaging has been key in generating physiologic and mechanistic insights, and new imaging technologies and analysis techniques are constantly being developed. This protocol demonstrates a methodology for combining two cardiovascular imaging and analysis techniques to validate the potential for these imaging modalities in ischemic cardiac disease and vascular aging.
Researchers in the biomechanical field often approach the study of biomechanics via a combination of in vivo, ex vivo, and in silico methods. Previous research in molecular biomechanics has focused primarily on proteins7 (particularly extracellular matrix proteins collagen and elastin because of their impact on biomechanical properties), and work to combine in vivo imaging biomechanics with molecular studies has been limited to histology and immunohistochemistry. Although these approaches can yield many molecular indicators and have yielded proposed mechanisms of remodeling of ECM and cells, they are typically limited to the currently available stains or antibodies, respectively. This field of research is missing large classes of molecules, e.g., lipids. While these molecular classes may or may not be mechanistically involved, the resulting molecular adaptations are important to understand because these molecules could be potential targets for both diagnostic markers and therapeutics. Analytical chemistry techniques, such as liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), can be applied; however, the spatial orientation of the molecules in these techniques is lost. With mass spectrometry imaging (MSI), the spatial distribution of molecules remains intact, and multiple analyte types (classes of molecules) can be imaged with serial sections. MSI is a powerful analytical tool to investigate the spatial distributions of nearly all types of molecules in biological tissue, including metabolites, lipids, glycans, peptides, and small molecular weight drugs8. Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) MSI is a type of MSI that is well suited for discovery-based analysis of molecular weights in the range of 50-8000 Da. MALDI-MSI is an ionization technique that applies a laser energy-absorbing matrix to the sample to aid in the ionization of the analytes of interest. This approach prevents being limited to one molecular target and can use bioinformatics tools to determine which molecules have an impact on biomechanical properties and remodeling.
Four-dimensional ultrasound (4DUS) is a non-invasive in vivo method useful for both temporal and spatial characterization of the heart. 4DUS utilizes a series of high frame rate cine loops from different planes, compiling them into a 3D dataset that includes temporal information. This allows for direct visualization and quantification of the complex 3D shape changes of the heart chambers over the cardiac cycle without relying on geometric assumptions as required for traditional 2D echocardiography. 4DUS allows in vivo functional metrics to be calculated from the complex shape and movement of the heart9,10, and MALDI MSI permits the spatial study of biological molecules within the cardiac tissue ex vivo11. To fully understand alterations in the heart with CVD, both mechanical and molecular mechanisms need to be investigated. Thus a combined methodology is proposed for studying murine heart pathophysiology, coupling 4DUS imaging and analysis with MALDI MSI of lipids in the heart. This methodology is demonstrated in a murine model of myocardial infarction.
Vascular biomechanics also play a critical role in regulating cardiovascular function2. Vascular stiffening, which is associated with aging, is a risk factor for CVD12. The biomechanical and hemodynamic changes in the vessels can be imaged using ultrasound. The molecular compositions of the vessel walls are important components of biomechanics and are also exquisitely sensitive to hemodynamic forces. For example, oscillatory wall shear stress has been implicated in atherosclerotic plaque development3. The preliminary data of vessel mechanics and hemodynamics in aged animals will be presented subsequently.
The team is interested in the relationship between biomechanics and molecular composition in various disease states. Preclinical ultrasound imaging and MSI are used to determine the spatial distribution of molecular changes in a tissue and the associated biomechanical changes that occur during disease progression. This report describes these methodologies in detail and presents preliminary data on the heart and the vasculature of the head/neck.