Abstract
During infection and inflammation, a reduced oxygen level clearly affects cellular functions. Oxygen levels during CNS infections are unknown. Here we established and evaluated an in vivo measurement system to characterize the oxygen level in parallel with bacterial numbers (CFU/mL), the cell number and pH level inside the CSF of healthy compared to Streptococcus suis-infected pigs. The animals were anesthetized over a seven-hour period with isoflurane in air/oxygen at physiologic arterial partial pressure of oxygen. Oxygen levels in CSF of anesthetized pigs were compared to euthanized pigs. The detected partial pressure of oxygen in the CSF remained constant in a range of 47–63 mmHg, independent of the infection status (bacterial or cell number). In contrast, the pH value showed a slight drop during infection, which correlated with cell and bacterial number in CSF. We present physiologic oxygen and pH values in CSF during the onset of bacterial meningitis.
Highlights
Oxygen is a key element in all metabolic processes of living beings and is needed in all cells
As the Cisterna cerebellomedullaris is closer to the brain, this study focused on establishing the oxygen measurement system at this localization
The correct position was verified by computer tomography (CT) of an epidural catheter inserted into the subarachnoid space (Fig. 1b and Additional file 1: Video S1)
Summary
Oxygen is a key element in all metabolic processes of living beings and is needed in all cells. To investigate functions of immune cells and pathogen behavior under proper These values are needed to optimize in vitro systems, such as blood–brain-barrier models [18,19,20,21,22,23,24], to better reflect the in vivo situation. In future, molecular studies on the cellular host–pathogen interaction, considering physiologic and pathophysiologic oxygen conditions, can be used to characterize adequately new therapeutic target structures against infectious diseases in humans and animals. Since there is insufficient knowledge about physiologic and pathophysiologic oxygen levels in humans and animals, in vivo characterization is necessary to optimize conditions for in vitro studies and to reduce the number of animal experiments
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