Cecal Ligation Model of Sepsis in Mice

Abstract

A large number of small and large animal models of sepsis and acute lung injury (ALI) have been used by investigators for the past four decades. The animal models have been designed to simulate common clinical disorders associated with clinical lung injury, including pneumonia, sepsis (pulmonary or non-pulmonary source), aspiration syndromes (gastric acid, fresh and salt water), and ischemia-reperfusion lung injury (1). A recent workshop provided consensus guidelines for animal models of ALI (2). Nevertheless, most animal models have several limitations because they cannot recapitulate the complex nature of sepsis and ALI in a critically ill patient (3). While mouse models offer some advantages over other animal models because specific mechanisms can be tested with genetic manipulations, it is difficult to measure respiratory and hemodynamic variables on a continuous basis during the course of the experiments and many mouse studies have been limited to shorter term experiments. In contrast, Patel et al (4) recently reported an excellent acid-induced lung injury model in mice studied for 10 days that reflected both the evolution and resolution of ALI, with measurements of extravascular lung water, alveolar fluid clearance, arterial blood gases, biochemical markers of lung injury and lung histology.