6 2.1 Methods

Research that aims to investigate the implications of exercise on cardiomyocyte physiological processes incorporate experimental myocardial infarction (MI) in order to induce ischemic injury (Vujic et al.). This method essentially involves permanent ligation of the left anterior descending artery in mice (Vujic et al.). Echocardiography analyses are then applied to analyze the severity of the induced MI (Vujic et al.). Following MI, researchers employ Multi-Isotope Imaging Mass Spectrometry (MIMS) to quantify the prevalence of 15N-thymidine, an isotope tracer, in cardiomyocytes as this will be indicative of cardiomyocyte proliferation (Vujic et al.).