EMU: Acquisition of echocardiograph for cardiac evalution in rats

• Grant number: 23/17292-6
• Support Opportunities: Research Infrastructure Program - Small Medium Sized
• Start date: September 01, 2024
• End date: August 31, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Medical Clinics
• Principal Investigator: Marina Politi Okoshi
• Grantee: Marina Politi Okoshi
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina (FMB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Katashi Okoshi ; Sergio Alberto Rupp de Paiva

Abstract

The project aims to acquire an echocardiograph to equip the Centralized Multi-User Laboratory of the Botucatu Medical School (FMB) of the University of Sao Paulo State, UNESP, called UNIPEX. The FMB has an Experimental Research Unit, UNIPEX, and an Animal Experimentation Research Unit, UPEA, financed with support from the public calls MCT/FINEP/Ação Transversal Pro-Infra 01/2007 and MCT/FINEP/CT-INFRA- PROINFRA 01/2008, and with counterparts from UNESP and the Foundation for Medical and Hospital Development of the FMB. Objectives of UNIPEX and UPEA include offering infrastructure and services to support scientific research; improvement of teaching; multi-user organization of the infrastructure and services offered; and rationalization of human, material and infrastructure resources. The research laboratories are organized in common areas intended for researchers who work with methodologies that require the same infrastructure. The laboratories have at least one technician specialized in the area, whose role is to provide technical and administrative support for research. UNIPEX also has specific laboratories, managed by researchers from different research fields. The Units are managed by a Management Council subordinate to the FMB Management. The Units have 50 employees, 15 with higher education degrees and 17 with postgraduate degrees, and a veterinarian. UNIPEX occupies an area of 14,144 m² where there are 22 multi-user laboratories focused on research, specific laboratories for different areas of research, a teaching laboratory, and vivariums. UNIPEX equipments are multi-user and available to researchers at UNESP and other institutions. The UNIPEX Secretariat is responsible for scheduling the use of equipment and services. The technicians responsible for the equipment assist and advise on the use of the equipment. Research laboratories have at least one specialized technician. Researchers at the Department of the Internal Medicine Department at FMB have extensive experience and tradition in the study of cardiac remodeling and its systemic consequences in different models of cardiac injury. In experimental research, rats are mainly used. Cardiac evaluation is performed in vivo by echocardiography and ex vivo in preparations of isolated rat hearts and papillary muscles isolated from the left ventricle. Echocardiographic study allows assessment of cardiac structures and ventricular function in vivo. As a non-invasive technique, it allows longitudinal studies. The Laboratory has an echocardiograph for rats, acquired in the FAPESP Multi-User Equipment Call (EMU-3), from 2009. However, the equipment has reached its useful life limit and, currently, it does not work and there is no possibility of repair. Therefore, we request an echocardiograph to be part of the UNIPEX equipments. It is important to highlight that experimental studies in cardiology only have considerable scientific value if they are accompanied by in vivo assessment of cardiac function. Since the creation of the FMB Experimental Laboratories, its researchers have worked in Multi-User Laboratories. Therefore, the Responsible Researcher's entire career was developed under the Multi-User Laboratories scheme. From September 2007 to September 2012, and before the creation of UNIPEX and UPEA, the Responsible Researcher headed the Experimental Laboratory of the Internal Medicine Department at FMB. After the creation of UNIPEX, she participated in the Unit's Management Council. Since September 2023, she has been General Coordinator, elected by peers, of the Clinical Research Unit, UPECLIN, at FMB, a multi-user unit focused on carrying out clinical research. (AU)