Table 4.

Reporting checklist, modified from the Animals in Research: reporting in vivo Experiments (ARRIVE) Guidelines

Item	Details
Abstract: report of relevant details	• Provide summary of research background, rationale, objectives • Give details to the experimental approach, report animal species and the animal model used
Ethical statements	• Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee approval, Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, welfare assessments and interventions
Animal description, housing, husbandry, animal care, and monitoring	• Species, strain, source, age (mean and range), sex, genotypes, body weight (mean and range), health/immune status, housing • Type (specific pathogen free), cage type, bedding material, number of cage companions, light-dark cycle, room • Temperature and humidity, food type, food, and water access • Report interventions/steps to reduce pain, suffering and distress and report animal monitoring (if necessary) • Report anesthesia and analgesic use and pain monitoring; surgical procedure details and monitoring, method of euthanasia • Report expected and unexpected adverse events
Study design	• Define model used • Define groups; matching, randomization, and blinding protocols; order of treatment and assessment of groups; method to confirm model success • Report inclusion/exclusion criteria (e.g., hemodynamics or lower limit for infarct size) • Report daily monitoring to record time and cause of death • Define timing of perioperative and postoperative phases for survival analysis, flow chart for complex designs
Interpretation and translation	• Comment on study limitations, limitations to the animal model used • Comment on the relevance to human myocardial infarction
Experimental procedures	• Define area examined (e.g., infarct, remote, both regions) • Define positive and negative controls; for drugs: formulation, dose, site, and route of administration • Record and report the recorded data (e.g., electrocardiogram, heart rate, and anesthesia depth) • Report time of day performed
Sample sizes	• Report sample size calculation • Report number of animals used per group for each experiment • List any animals or samples removed from analysis with reason
Variables measured and data access	• Report primary and secondary end points • Provide a statement describing if and where data are available
Statistics	• Methods used for each analysis, test for assumptions • Report a measure of variability (e.g., means ± standard deviation or median and range)