Abstract
This multi-author book edited by Qingbo Xu provides a useful comprehensive account of our current knowledge on mouse models of cardiovascular disease. The book includes 29 chapters, and some are in journal article format with abstract and keywords to references. The first three chapters cover an historical perspective of mice as laboratory animals and mouse strains, including genetics, gene mapping, testing candidate genes in quantitative trait locus regions, generation of transgenic and gene-targeted mouse models, and their application in hyperlipidemia research. A group of chapters follow on marrow transplantation, imaging techniques, special instruments, surgical procedures, and detailed protocols and tips on dealing with common operational problems. Each chapter contains highly valuable information on mouse models that are not easily found in other text books, especially on cardiovascular disease models. The techniques described vary from basic blood collection and parenteral injection methods to highly specific ones, such as tissue grafts, interposition transplants, closed cranial implantation and laser-doppler flowmetry, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and their applications. The final group of chapters round off the completeness by discussing surgically induced cardiac failure, cardiac electrophysiology, vessel ligation, and wire-induced stenosis. In general, the book is clearly written and covers mouse models of all important cardiovascular diseases in humans, including atherosclerosis, atrial fibrillation, and thrombosis. All histopathological figures are in black and white; however, matching color plates are included in the accompanying CD-ROM. A minor quibble is the requirement of a device to view these color plates. The text has been well edited so that there is not a great deal of duplication. However, when chapters dealing with various disease models using the same mouse strain (for example, Apo E-/-) are contributed by different authors, the duplication of similar statements is almost impossible to avoid. Finally, each chapter is well supported with up-to-date references, and the 15-page index is user friendly and comprehensive as well.
The accompanying CD-ROM contains color illustrations and 13 video clips with live surgical procedures, MRI, and a blood sampling method. These video clips are a helpful adjunct to the text. The video quality is reasonably good except for one by Korshnov where image frames appear dark and lack details. Two video clips are incorporated with step-by-step voice commands, a feature I like the most. Seven video clips have no title, textual illustrations, or sound, creating an annoyance by making the viewer hunt for a video's relevance. On balance, this book is not intended for diagnostic or practicing toxicologic pathologists but a useful adjunct to researchers including pathologists, who are doing research in the field of cardiovascular disease models.