Heart structure and coronary blood supply in the white-eared opossum (Didelphis albiventris)

• Grant number: 22/03940-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: July 01, 2022
• End date: June 30, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Veterinary Medicine
• Principal Investigator: Bruno Cesar Schimming
• Grantee: Layla Contessotto de Oliveira
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IBB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Botucatu. Botucatu , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The Didelphis albiventris is one of the most common marsupals in Brazil, and it is known as the white-eared opossum. These opossums have crepuscular and nocturnal habits. They are opportunistic and omnivorous and have increasingly adapted to urban habits. Although the white-eared opossum is frequently observed in anthropic rural and urban environments, and can be considered one of the wild mammal species with greater contact with humans, there is little anatomical knowledge about this marsupial species. And to our knowledge, there are no descriptions of the anatomy presented by Didelphis albiventris heart. Thus, in order to contribute to this knowledge, the purpose of this project is to describe the anatomy of the heart and its coronary artery supply in white-eared opossums. For that, ten animals will have the aortic arch cannulated and perfused, in the retrograde direction, with latex and rigid epoxy resin to fill the coronary arteries. The hearts injected with latex will be fixed in 10% formaldehyde solution and the internal structure of the heart chambers described. While the hearts perfused with the resin will be submerged in hydrochloric acid to corrode the soft tissues, leaving the coronary arteries and their branches. In this way, the syntopy, the anatomy of the heart, the internal anatomy of the cardiac chambers and the course of the coronary arteries will be described for the white-eared opossum heart. (AU)