lung function screen

http://www.helmholtz-muenchen.de/en/ilbd/about-ilbd/

Please notice:
This screen demands special standards for animal housing and for the hygiene status of the animals: only animals with documented SPF-Status according to the FELASA guide lines and a lung free of facultative pathogen microorganisms - e.g. Staphylococcus aureus, beta-hemolytic Streptococcus, Pasteurella spp., Escherichia coli - can be used. Prior to investigation the animals have to be kept for 14 days under clean air conditions at the IHB.

This screen is designed to evaluate strain and sex specific differences in spontaneous breathing patterns and to assess whether differences in respiratory mechanics influence spontaneous breathing.

Spontaneously breathing pattern - non restrained animal

• Determination of tidal volume, breathing rate, inspiratory and expiratory time, maximal inspiratory and maximal expiratory flow, and "Enhanced Pause" (Parameter for the assessment of airway obstruction)

Airway responsiveness - non restrained animal

• Assessment of airway responsiveness to an unspecific challenge, e.g. to methacholine. Measurement of changes in enhanced Pause as a function of the amount of nebulised substance (Option - only for selected cases)
• Respiratory lung function in anesthetized animals
• Respiratory mechanics:
  lung volumes, static and dynamic compliances, airway resistance
• Intrapulmonary gas mixing: single-breath maneuver with the testgas helium, evaluated data from expirogram: dead space volume, slope of the alveolar plateau (phase III of expirogram)
• Alveolar-capillary gas transfer: diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide
  (Option - only for selected cases)
  

Cell status of the untreated lung
Cell status of the lung after methacholine challenge

• Challenge to nebulised methacholine (see above)
  

Cell status of the lung after induction of a lung inflammation

• Induction of a moderate lung inflammation by exposure to oxygen
  

Cell status of the lung after exposure to aerosol particles (Option - only for selected cases)

• Whole-body exposure to ultrafine carbon black particles