Macroscopic anatomical study of the distribution of the cranial mesenteric artery to the intestine in the rabbit

Abstract

Intestinal surgery is commonly performed to cure bowel obstruction in rabbits, but detailed descriptions of the arterial supply to the intestine are incomplete. We investigated anatomical variations of the distribution of the cranial mesenteric artery to the intestine in 33 New Zealand White rabbits by injecting colored latex into the arteries. The cranial mesenteric artery arose independently from the abdominal aorta at about 2.0 cm caudal to the celiac artery and branched off the pancreaticoduodenal, middle colic, ileocecocolic, jejunal and ileal arteries. One or occasionally two caudal pancreaticoduodenal arteries supplied the distal duodenum, and one to three middle colic arteries supplied the transverse colon and the initial portion of the descending colon. The ileocecocolic artery arose distal to the middle colic arteries and provided the right colic, ileocecal and appendicular arteries, and branches to the proximal colon, with various branching patterns, which were grouped into four major types. These arteries and branches supplied the ileum, cecum, appendix and proximal colon. The cranial mesenteric artery also provided the jejunal arteries (predominantly 17; range 11-21) and one ileal artery supplying the jejunum and proximal ileum, respectively. The results show that the distribution patterns of the cranial mesenteric artery to the intestine in the rabbit are highly specialized to this species. Such specialization should always be considered when performing intestinal surgery in rabbits.

Ramification Pattern of the Arteries Supplying the Rabbit Female Genital Organs

“…To reduce the number of experimental animals, we dissected 15 New Zealand White rabbits (aged 12–14 weeks, weighing 1.7–2.3 kg), which had been purchased from Tokyo Laboratory Animals Science (Tokyo, Japan) and had been used in our previous studies (Honda and Shibata, ; Kigata et al, ; Kigata and Shibata, ), and 15 Japanese White rabbits (aged 1.5 years, weighing 3.0–3.5 kg), which were obtained from the TUAT Laboratory of Veterinary Pharmacology at the end of a veterinary pharmacology practice class. The experimental procedure was similar to that used in our previous studies (Kigata et al, ; Kigata and Shibata, ). Briefly, all New Zealand White and Japanese White rabbits were deeply anesthetized with an intramuscular injection of xylazine (10 mg/kg) and ketamine (50 mg/kg) and an intraperitoneal injection of sodium pentobarbital (60 mg/kg body weight), and then perfused transcardially with 0.9% saline followed by 10% phosphate‐buffered formalin or 4% paraformaldehyde, or 4% paraformaldehyde and 0.05% glutaraldehyde.…”

Macroscopic Study of Celiac, Cranial Mesenteric and Caudal Mesenteric Arteries in the European Hare

“…In 6.7 % of the cases, the a. pancreaticoduodenalis caudalis was duplicated [8]. A single or doubled a. pancreaticoduodenalis caudalis was described by K i g a t a et al [7]. In the hare, we found the a. pancreaticoduodenalis caudalis as the first branch in two cases.…”

“…The domesticated rabbit is one of the species most frequently used in the study of various diseases associated with the gastrointestinal tract as well as in the study of pharmacology, toxicology and surgery [12]. For this reason, the arterial system of its abdominal viscera has been described more in detail [1,2,5,7,8]. The studies dealing with the variations of the arterial system in the wild European hare are much rarer [3,9].…”

“…In the rabbit, the a. colica media represented the second branch in all cases [2,12], in more than one half of cases [5], or it formed the first branch [8]. K i g a t a et al [7] found one to three a. colica media in the rabbit. In 80 % of the male and 86.67 % of female rabbits, one single a. jejunalis was the third branch [5].…”

“…The anatomical pattern of the branches arising from the ventral surface of the abdominal aorta in the domesticated rabbit have been described in detail in many different studies [1,2,4,5,6,7,8,10,12]. Despite the high occurrence of the European hare as a wild animal in Europe, the detailed knowledge of its arterial system is still lacking in the literature.…”