Ventricular resection endoscopic biopsy and animal survival in adult <i>Xenopus laevis</i>.

<p>(<b>A-C</b>) Key steps of the heart ventricular biopsy procedure using an endoscope. After an abdominal incision, the endoscope is inserted into the pleuroperitoneal cavity (<b>A</b>), using a xenon light source and light cable (<b>A’</b>) to search for the heart and observe the procedure internally. Biopsy forceps are used to break the falciform ligament, open the pericardial sac (<b>B</b>), then collect a calibrated piece of cardiac tissue from the apical region of the ventricle (see also <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0173418#pone.0173418.s007" target="_blank">S1 File</a>). The surgery is ended (<b>C</b>) by performing a single suture to close the incision. (<b>D-E</b>) Comparison of a control non-operated heart (<b>D</b>) with an operated heart, displaying a large blood clot 1 day post-amputation (<b>E</b>), the size of biopsy tissue (<b>E’</b>) collected corresponds to approximately 4% of the ventricle. (<b>F</b>) Graphical representation of survival after the procedure, detailing total number of animals used for the full amputation procedure (n = 34), and animals ethically sacrificed (n = 2) or experimentally sacrificed at the end of the planned protocol (n = 32). <i>Scale bars</i>, 2 mm (D, E and E’).