A Murine Model of Myocardial Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury

Ligation of the left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery in the mouse heart is a widely used model to simulate myocardial infarction and ischemia-reperfusion injury. Here we describe a ligation technique routinely performed in our laboratory to induce myocardial infarction that may be used to study ischemia-reperfusion injury in the myocardium. The methods described enhance location of the LAD coronary artery to allow for accurate ligation, thus increasing reproducibility of infarct size and location.