According to the Fraunhofer institute, animal models to study cardiac/extracardiac interactions in heart failure are insufficient and therefore clinical-realistic models are needed.  Most animal models are rather models of an acute than a chronic disease, and the results are therefore subject to some uncertainty when transferred to humans. Therefore, the researchers of the Fraunhofer ITEM, led by Prof. Thomas Thum, are developing in vitro or ex vivo systems with human tissues to study intercellular interactions or interactions between organs in a very clinically relevant context.

Original position paper:
Ciccarelli M, Dawson D, Falcao-Pires I, Giacca M, Hamdani N, Heymans S, Hooghiemstra A, Leeuwis A, Hermkens D, Tocchetti CG, van der Velden J, Zacchigna S, Thum T. Reciprocal organ interactions during heart failure: a position paper from the ESC Working Group on Myocardial Function. Cardiovasc Res. 2021 Nov 1;117(12):2416-2433. doi: 10.1093/cvr/cvab009. PMID: 33483724; PMCID: PMC8562335. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33483724/

More information:
https://www.item.fraunhofer.de/de/presse-medien/presseinformationen/herzinsuffizienz-verstehen-und-innovative-therapien-entwickeln.html