Is a pre-treatment with low dose cyclosporine immunosuppression necessary to limit allogeneic cardiosphere-derived cell therapy rejection? Listen as Associate Editor Dr. Amanda LeBlanc (University of Louisville) interviews senior author Dr. John Canty (University of Buffalo) and expert Dr. Fabio Recchia (Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna; Temple University) about the latest study by Techiryan et al. In this blinded randomized controlled trial using swine, the authors tested whether low dose cyclosporine could be initiated at the time of reperfusion. In contrast to previous studies, the authors were not able to reproduce the cardioprotective effects demonstrated by allogeneic CDCs without cyclosporine. Conducting large animal studies is like conducting an orchestra, with many members of the lab playing specific roles. What is it like to take a pig with a balloon occluder in their anterior descending artery 100 yards down the hall to the imaging center for a CT scan while the animal is having an acute infarction? Listen as we discuss the challenges of blinded preclinical studies and how large animal studies can offer unique preclinical insights that may translate more effectively to clinical treatment of cardiovascular disease.   George Techiryan, Brian R. Weil, Rebeccah F. Young, and John M. Canty Jr. Widespread intracoronary allogeneic cardiosphere-derived cell therapy with and without cyclosporine in reperfused myocardial infarction Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol, published October 17, 2022. DOI: 10.1152/ajpheart.00373.2022