Myocardial micro-biopsy procedure for molecular characterization with increased precision and reduced trauma.

Grankvist R, Chireh A, Sandell M, Mukarram AK, Jaff N, Berggren I, Persson H, Linde C, Arnberg F, Lundberg J, Ugander M, La Manno G, Jonsson S, Daub CO, Holmin S

Sci Rep 10 (1) 8029 [2020-05-15; online 2020-05-15]

Endomyocardial biopsy is a valuable tool in cardiac diagnostics but is limited by low diagnostic yield and significant complication risks. Meanwhile, recent developments in transcriptomic and proteomic technologies promise a wealth of biological data from minimal tissue samples. To take advantage of the minimal tissue amount needed for molecular analyses, we have developed a sub-millimeter endovascular biopsy device, considerably smaller than current clinical equipment, and devised a low-input RNA-sequencing protocol for analyzing small tissue samples. In in vivo evaluation in swine, 81% of biopsy attempts (n = 157) were successful. High quality RNA-sequencing data was generated from 91% of the sequenced cardiac micro-biopsy samples (n = 32). Gene expression signatures of samples taken with the novel device were comparable with a conventional device. No major complications were detected either during procedures or during 7 days' follow-up, despite acquiring a relatively large number of biopsies (median 30) in each animal. In conclusion, the novel device coupled with RNA-sequencing provides a feasible method to obtain molecular data from the myocardium. The method is less traumatic and has a higher flexibility compared to conventional methods, enabling safer and more targeted sampling from different parts of the myocardium.

Bioinformatics Support for Computational Resources [Service]

NGI Stockholm (Genomics Applications) [Service]

NGI Stockholm (Genomics Production) [Service]

National Genomics Infrastructure [Service]

PubMed 32415191

DOI 10.1038/s41598-020-64900-w

Crossref 10.1038/s41598-020-64900-w

pii: 10.1038/s41598-020-64900-w
pmc: PMC7229024