Abstract
BackgroundPigs are the natural hosts of many zoonotic pathogens such as influenza viruses and Staphylococcus aureus and thus have advantages over non-natural hosts when studying these zoonotic diseases. In addition, pulmonary infections are a key issue in the pig industry, for example: porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus infection. Exploration of the pathogenesis of swine pulmonary infections, in particular at the onset of disease, will provide valuable information for the development of vaccines against these diseases. Therefore, there is need to develop a methodology that allows for in vivo sampling of efferent pulmonary lymph with minimum damage to the target tissues for studying the pathogenesis of swine pulmonary infections.ResultsWe introduce the surgical procedures for cannulating the thoracic duct at its point of entry into the external jugular vein cranial to the first rib on the left in pigs. Using this methodology, we monitored the amounts of triglyceride and cholesterol in the lymph collected from the thoracic duct following 30 h fasting and at multiple time points after meals. It was found that the levels of triglyceride rather than cholesterol corresponded to the milky appearance of the lymph samples.ConclusionsOur techniques provide a strategy for collecting lymph including pulmonary lymph from the thoracic duct without thoracotomy. A pig model for collecting in vivo, in situ efferent lymph draining the lower respiratory tract and its local lymph nodes in real-time with minimal tissue damage to the target tissues opens a new door for studying disease processes in pulmonary infections. Techniques described here are the key to this door.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12917-016-0808-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Pigs are the natural hosts of many zoonotic pathogens such as influenza viruses and Staphylococcus aureus and have advantages over non-natural hosts when studying these zoonotic diseases
Obtaining pulmonary lymph draining the lungs and the local lymph nodes from the natural hosts of lung pathogens provides a strategy for monitoring in vivo, in situ pulmonary immunobiology and screening the biomarkers following pulmonary infections
Pigs are the natural hosts of several zoonotic pathogens for example influenza viruses (H1N1, H3N2, and H1N2) [1], Japanese encephalitis virus [2, 3] and Staphylococcus aureus [4], and are suitable for studying disease processes in these infections
Summary
Pigs are the natural hosts of many zoonotic pathogens such as influenza viruses and Staphylococcus aureus and have advantages over non-natural hosts when studying these zoonotic diseases. Pulmonary infections are a key issue in the pig industry, for example: porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus infection. There is need to develop a methodology that allows for in vivo sampling of efferent pulmonary lymph with minimum damage to the target tissues for studying the pathogenesis of swine pulmonary infections. Pigs are the natural hosts of several zoonotic pathogens for example influenza viruses (H1N1, H3N2, and H1N2) [1], Japanese encephalitis virus [2, 3] and Staphylococcus aureus [4], and are suitable for studying disease processes in these infections. Real-time in vivo pulmonary lymph collection provides the chance to monitor the progress of an infection from the first contact of a pathogen with the host to the induction of illness. To achieve effective monitoring of pulmonary responses, a strategy for accessing in vivo pulmonary lymph samples in pigs is needed
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