Are Standard Human Coagulation Tests Suitable in Pigs and Calves During Extracorporeal Circulation?

Abstract

The thrombogenicity of membrane oxygenators as well as clotting parameters profiles, using standard human clotting tests, was analyzed in calves and pigs during 6 h perfusion. Three calves and 3 pigs were connected to extracorporeal circulation with standard heparinization. Blood samples were taken for coagulation variables throughout perfusion, and oxygenators were examined for clot deposits at the end of the experiment. Two out of 3 oxygenators of the calf group presented clot deposits while none in the pig group did. Baseline coagulation variables of pigs showed values similar to those of humans while neither extrinsic nor intrinsic pathways could be activated in calves with standard human coagulation tests. The calf model, in conclusion, was confirmed to be a difficult model for the testing of extracorporeal circulation device resistance to thrombus formation, which is, however, not reflected by standard human coagulation tests. The pig model is a better model in which both coagulation pathways could be activated with standard human coagulation tests.

Collagen-Platelet Composites Improve the Biomechanical Properties of Healing Anterior Cruciate Ligament Grafts in a Porcine Model

“…The pig knee is dependent on its ACL for joint stability 4. The pig has hematologic characteristics that are similar to human which is particularly important for wound healing studies involving platelets 17. Finally, the animals are relatively easy to work with and care for, and age, weight and gender matched animals are readily available.…”

Investigating the effects of anterior tibial translation on anterior knee force in the porcine model: Is the porcine knee ACL dependent?

“…It is suitable for performing reproducible surgeries (large joint size), has similar anatomic structure to the human, develops forces comparable to the human knee, and has compatable thrombogenicity and clotting parameters to humans. 12,[14][15][16]23,26 However, to our knowledge, no studies to date have collected in vivo motions in the porcine knee. To determine the interspecies differences, we tested a set of ovine limbs with the ovine motion (data shown in supplementary material).…”

Validation of Porcine Knee as a Sex-specific Model to Study Human Anterior Cruciate Ligament Disorders

“…Large animal models including pigs, sheep, goats, dogs, and rabbits have been used as surrogates to study the effects of surgical intervention after ACL injury [7,17,19,20,22,26,44]. Among those, the porcine model has been shown to be the closest to the human based on the size and anatomy of the knee [48], functional dependence on the ACL [10], gait biomechanics [60], and similarity of hematology and wound healing characteristics [15,38,40]. However, it is unknown if the porcine model also could be used to study sex-related phenomena associated with ACL injury.…”