Review

Invasive and noninvasive methods for studying pulmonary function in mice

Thomas Glaab¹ , Christian Taube¹ , Armin Braun² and Wayne Mitzner³

¹  Department of Pulmonary Medicine, III. Medical Clinic, Johannes Gutenberg-University, Mainz, Germany

²  Fraunhofer Institute of Toxicology and Experimental Medicine (ITEM), Hannover, Germany

³  Division of Physiology, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, USA

author email corresponding author email

Respiratory Research 2007, 8:63doi:10.1186/1465-9921-8-63

Published:	14 September 2007

Abstract

The widespread use of genetically altered mouse models of experimental asthma has stimulated the development of lung function techniques in vivo to characterize the functional results of genetic manipulations. Here, we describe various classical and recent methods of measuring airway responsiveness in vivo including both invasive methodologies in anesthetized, intubated mice (repetitive/non-repetitive assessment of pulmonary resistance (R_L) and dynamic compliance (C_dyn); measurement of low-frequency forced oscillations (LFOT)) and noninvasive technologies in conscious animals (head-out body plethysmography; barometric whole-body plethysmography). Outlined are the technical principles, validation and applications as well as the strengths and weaknesses of each methodology. Reviewed is the current set of invasive and noninvasive methods of measuring murine pulmonary function, with particular emphasis on practical considerations that should be considered when applying them for phenotyping in the laboratory mouse.