Coronary ligation

Coronary artery ligation (CAL) in animal subjects is a widely utilized model for evaluating the pathological mechanisms surrounding acute and chronic myocardial ischemia, which can ultimately lead to heart failure. The model is also very useful in evaluating the role of specific genes/proteins in myocardial infarction-related pathological processes through the use of global and/or cardiac-specific knockout mice. Importantly, this model also allows for the assessment of novel therapeutic strategies intended to counteract the pathological processes that accompany myocardial infarction. This chapter provides a general protocol for inducing permanent CAL in mice that, with considerable practice, should allow for the generation of reproducible infarct sizes.