Respiratory dysfunction is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the world and the rates of mortality continue to rise. Quantitative assessment of lung function in rodent models is an important tool in the development of future therapies. Commonly used techniques for assessing respiratory function including invasive plethysmography and forced oscillation. While these techniques provide valuable information, data collection can be fraught with artefacts and experimental variability due to the need for anesthesia and/or invasive instrumentation of the animal. In contrast, unrestrained whole-body plethysmography (UWBP) offers a precise, non-invasive, quantitative way by which to analyze respiratory parameters. This technique avoids the use of anesthesia and restraints, which is common to traditional plethysmography techniques. This video will demonstrate the UWBP procedure including the equipment set up, calibration and lung function recording. It will explain how to analyze the collected data, as well as identify experimental outliers and artefacts that results from animal movement. The respiratory parameters obtained using this technique include tidal volume, minute volume, inspiratory duty cycle, inspiratory flow rate and the ratio of inspiration time to expiration time. UWBP does not rely on specialized skills and is inexpensive to perform. A key feature of UWBP, and most appealing to potential users, is the ability to perform repeated measures of lung function on the same animal. Video LinkThe video component of this article can be found at

Background: Assessment of deterioration of lung function in animal models of respiratory disease traditionally relies upon quantitating biochemical markers. Plethysmography is a technique for measuring lung function that includes invasive and non-invasive methodologies. Objectives: This study used whole-body barometric plethysmography to characterize change(s) in respiratory physiology of C57BL/6 mice following bleomycin administration. Methods: Cohorts of animals were culled at 3, 7, 14 and 28 days to semi-quantitatively score the lung for fibrosis, and quantitate levels of hydroxyproline in the lung. We have described in detail the response of C57BL/6 mice to bleomycin. Results: Bleomycin-treated mice had reduced minute volume (p < 0.05) and an increased total breathing cycle time (p < 0.0001), which consisted of a shortened inspiration time (p < 0.01) and an extended expiration time (p < 0.0001). Conclusions: We have demonstrated that plethysmography can be a primary indicator of the development of respiratory disease in the mouse and would thus be suitable in assessing potential therapies since any truly effective treatment should elicit restoration of respiratory parameters in addition to improving traditional biochemical and histological indices of lung function.

Background: The immunomodulatory and immunosuppressive capacity of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC) is well recognized, but efficacies of hMSC in immunocompetent and immunocompromised animals have never been directly compared. Objectives: We aimed to compare the efficacy of hMSC in preventing bleomycin-induced lung injury in immunocompromised SCID and immunocompetent C57Bl/6 mice. Methods: SCID and C57Bl/6 mice were subjected to a single bolus intranasal instillation of bleomycin to induce lung injury. One million hMSC were administered intravenously 24 h following the induction of bleomycin lung injury. Results: hMSC xenotransplantation into SCID mice resulted in transient improvements in lung weight and tidal volume and to persistent improvement in inspiratory duty cycle, inspiratory flow rate and inspiration/expiration ratio. We did not observed protective effects in C57Bl/6 mice. This correlated with histological changes, where hMSC administration reduced Ashcroft scores, collagen deposition and inflammatory influx in the lungs of SCID mice, but not in those of C57Bl/6 mice. Conclusion: The application of hMSC for the treatment of acute and chronic lung injury is significantly affected by the immune status of the recipient. Lack of hMSC-mediated repair observed in C57Bl/6 mice was likely to be due to limitations of their immune privilege and differential priming of hMSC in immunocompetent versus immunocompromised hosts.

The bone marrow represents the most common source from which to isolate mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). MSCs are capable of differentiating into tissues of the three primary lineages and have the potential to enhance repair in damaged organs through the principals of regenerative medicine. Given the ease with which MSCs may be isolated from different species the aim of this study was to isolate and characterize putative bone marrow derived MSCs from the spiny mouse, Acomys cahirinus. MSCs were isolated from the spiny mouse in a traditional manner, and based on plastic adherence, morphology, colony forming unitfibroblast assays and functional assessment (adipogenic, osteogenic and chondrogenic differentiation potential) a population of putative mesenchymal stem cells from the compact bone of the spiny mouse have been isolated and characterized. Such methodological approaches overcome the lack of species-specific antibodies for the spiny mouse and could be employed for other species where the cost of generating species-specific antibodies is not warranted.