The Surgery, Physiology and Immunohistopathology Core (Core C), which will be used by all of the Projects of this PPG, will offer integrated services for assessing heart function and structure in settings that mimic cardiac pathology in mice. Accordingly, Core C will house and maintain the equipment and provide the staff necessary to offer Project Leaders and other PPG personnel the following services: 1) Surgery: in vivo myocardial infarction and transaortic constriction, 2) Physiology: echocardiography, Langendorff and working mouse hearts, 3) Immunohistopathology: state-of-the-art confocal fluorescent microscopic imaging of heart and myocyte structure, and cellular locations of signaling molecules in mouse heart sections and cultured cells. The Physiology, Surgery and Immunohistopathology Core, Core C, will be centrally located in the recently completed SDSL) BioScience Center, which houses the SDSU Heart Institute labs and administrative offices. Core C is composed of fully equipped surgery and physiology suites, dedicated mouse holding rooms, a complete tissue histology lab and a state-of-the-art confocal microscopy imaging facility. PPG investigators at all three institutions, as well as the live-cell imaging center in the Cell Biology Core, will be able to connect to the Core C imaging facility via an open microscopy environment (OME). The OME will optimize image data analysis, transfer and storage for all 5 of the PPG projects, as well as facilitating the integration of fixed sample imaging in Core C with live-cell imaging in Core B. An additional advantage of Core C is that it adjoins the SDSU Heart Institute Mouse Genetics Center, which facilitates the generation and use of genetically modified mice by all of the PPG projects. Core C was designed specifically to serve this multiinstitutional PPG;accordingly, it will maximize collaborations between projects, thus enhancing the synergy of this integrated research program. Core C complements and integrates with Core B by providing the ideal venue for examining cellular structure at the microscopic level, and by serving as the location where principles discovered using cells generated in the Cell Biology Core can be examined in a pathophysiological context that mimics the in vivo setting.