Abstract Rationale The flexiVent (SciReq) is a system used to measure real-time experimental lung function in different animal models and is widely regarded as the gold standard for in vivo respiratory mechanics measurements. While the system (in its default setting) measures the lung function of all lobes of the lung at the same time, for studies in which unilateral injuries are performed on murine models (i.e. lung transplant) an approach to perform single left lobe measurement needs to be validated. In addition, such protocol is crucial for ruling out the influence of the cuff used in experimental lung transplants on the bilateral lung function results. Methods A novel approach was developed to perform lung function measurements exclusively on the left lungs of mice, through ligating the right main bronchus and adjusting the tidal volume dispensed from the flexiVent system. The main issue to solve with this approach was to develop a way to maintain the pressure in the lung and keep the subject alive and breathing during the process. Five common techniques used to validate murine pulmonary experiments were used: Forced Oscillation Technique (FOT), Single Frequency FOT, Recruitment through Deep Inflation, Pressure Volume (PV) Loops, and Forced Expired Volume Maneuver. Results The double lung function on mice in three modes (open chest, close chest and open chest while in the ventilator), was first investigated to see whether the chest cavities of the mice could be opened on the machine ventilator and still give consistent and repeatable results. Once a method to open the chest cavity was devised the accuracy of single lung function was then tested on mice which had undergone unilateral treatment. The single lung function results of C57BL/6J mice transplanted with a left lung from either C57BL/6J or transgenic HLA-A2.1 (a Chronic Lung Allograft Dysfunction model), was then compared to the results to double lung function results of mice that had gone through the same type of transplants. Conclusion The results of both sets of lung function measurements were consistent with one another, with the results of the unilateral lung function showing high reproducibility. This opens an opportunity to mechanically review unilateral lung function when the injury (and/or treatment) is localized to the left lobe, without the worries of masking small functional changes due to bilateral compensation (due to an uninjured right lung). This abstract is funded by: R01-HL172493
Bueno et al. (Fri,) studied this question.