In Vitro and Ex Vivo Assays

1 Isolated Tissue Myocardial tissue harvested from an animal or even in some cases from man can be used to assess possible effects of a test article on the contractile state of the myocardium. Isolated atria, papillary muscles, trabeculae, or strips taken from papillary muscles or the ventricular wall have been used for this type of study (Toda, 1969 Brown and Erdmann, 1985 Brown et al 1987 Wilson and Broadley, 1989 Saetrum Opgaard et al 2000). 

2 Isolated Hearts Similarly, an entire heart can be removed from an animal donor (e.g., rabbit) and studied in isolation via Langendorff perfusion using different modes of contraction such as isovolumetric (Qu et al., 2013) or working heart under various conditions of preload and afterload (Werchan and McDonough, 1987). This approach shares many of the characteristics of the isolated tissue approach, including the need for technical expertise to run 

Although the relationship between drug concentration and effect in isolated tissue or heart preparations may not exactly mimic that what is seen in vivo, these models can still be very useful for hazard identification and prioritization of compounds when they are compared to each other. 

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Use of more specific in vitro and ex vivo assays to determine toxicological significance ... 

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