Aortic Valve Damage for the Study of Left-Sided, Native Valve Infective Endocarditis in Rabbits.

Infective endocarditis affects approximately 100,000 individuals in the USA. Medical advances have contributed to the rise of the disease, and no new therapies have emerged in the last 50 years to control the surge of this life-threatening infection. The rabbit vascular physiology and immune response mechanisms are similar to humans. Hence, the rabbit model of infective endocarditis is an excellent research tool with which to address many questions regarding development of endocarditis, for the testing of new therapies, and for the study of the molecular mechanisms used by infectious agents to cause disease. This chapter describes the surgical procedure required to study infective endocarditis in damaged native valves, therefore closely mimicking human disease.