Expression of Ciona intestinalis alternative oxidase (AOX) in a mouse model of cardiac ischemia-reperfusion

The objective of this study was to test how restoration of mitochondrial respiration using AOX affects the development of cardiac ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injuries in C57BL/ 6J mice. AOX transgenic mice have Ciona intestinalis AOX coding sequence knocked into the Rosa26 locus with AOX expression controlled by a CAG promoter as described elsewhere (Szibor et al. (2017) Dis Model Mech 10: 163–171). Consequences of 45 min of cardiac ischemia were studied 3 and 9 weeks after reperfusion in both wild-type and AOX litter mates.