Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is considered the major cause of mortality in the world. Tremendous animal studies are performed to develop novel therapeutics, and this study aimed to induce porcine myocardial infarction model by using polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Coronary guidewire was placed in left anterior descending artery (LAD). The balloon angioplasty catheter was inserted at the back of the PET. The balloon catheter was carefully pushed forward, until the balloon marker was located in mid-LAD. Coronary angiography was performed pre- and post-occlusion at 28 days by C-arm. Histologic analysis of heart tissue was performed 28 days after inducing AMI. Thirty three pigs were anesthetized and underwent percutaneous coronary catheterization. All pigs were successfully embolized in mid-LAD by PET. Fifteen pigs died due to ventricular fibrillation during post-anesthetic recovery time, and overall experiment mortality was 45.5%. In 2,3,5- triphenyl tetrazolium chloride staining, gross finding of the ischemic heart lesion showed firm and white area of infarction associated with the apex and left ventricular posterior wall. Infarct on H&E-stained sections demonstrated a region without myocytes and rich with cardiomyocyte with atypical nuclei. Successful induction of AMI by using PET may provide the pathophysiological information of ischemic heart disease and improvement of therapy development for AMI.

In Korea most bulbs of calla lily (Zantedeschia spp.) are imported from foreign countries including USA and Netherlands due to frequent viral infection problems in field propagation. To solve this problem, in vitro propagation system of calla lilies has been attempted, which ultimately would have an agronomical impact on Korean calla lily farmers. In this study, we carried out experiments to find an efficient method for multiple shoot formation and subsequent root induction in calla lily ‘Black Star’. Lateral buds were used for the induction of multiple shoots on basal MS media containing various concentrations of auxin and cytokinin. The highest callus and multiple shoot formation was observed in MS medium containing 1.0 mg/L of each NAA and BA, in which 25 (83.3%) explants exhibited callus formation and all 30 explants produced multiple shoots with an average of 14.7 shoots per explant in average length of 4.1 cm. Subsequently, obtained shoots were tested for root induction in MS media containing auxins, IAA, NAA, or 2,4-D, because calla lily shoots derived from tissue culture did not produce sufficient roots that are crucial for the survival under natural environment after transplanting. An average of 4.9 or 3.1 roots was generated after 20-day culture of shoots on MS media containing 1.0 mg/L IAA or 1.0 mg/L 2,4-D, respectively. However, no root formation was observed in MS media supplemented with NAA, indicating that NAA is not adequate for root induction of shoots derived from tissue culture of ‘Black Star’.