Unitat de Biofísica i Bioenginyeria, Facultat de Medicina, Universitat de Barcelona-IDIBAPS, Barcelona, Spain; CIBER Enfermedades Respiratorias, Bunyola, Spain.
Respir Physiol Neurobiol. 2011 Jan 31;175(1):164-8. doi: 10.1016/j.resp.2010.11.001. Epub 2010 Nov 9.
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is characterized by recurrent upper airway obstructions during sleep. The most common animal model of OSA is based on subjecting rodents to intermittent hypoxic exposures and does not mimic important OSA features, such as recurrent hypercapnia and increased inspiratory efforts. To circumvent some of these issues, a novel murine model involving non-invasive application of recurrent airway obstructions was developed. An electronically controlled airbag system is placed in front of the mouse's snout, whereby inflating the airbag leads to obstructed breathing and spontaneous breathing occurs with the airbag deflated. The device was tested on 29 anesthetized mice by measuring inspiratory effort and arterial oxygen saturation (SaO₂). Application of recurrent obstructive apneas (6 s each, 120/h) for 6h resulted in SaO₂ oscillations to values reaching 84.4 ± 2.5% nadir, with swings mimicking OSA patients. This novel system, capable of applying controlled recurrent airway obstructions in mice, is an easy-to-use tool for investigating pertinent aspects of OSA.
阻塞性睡眠呼吸暂停（OSA）的特征是睡眠期间反复发生上呼吸道阻塞。最常见的 OSA 动物模型基于使啮齿动物间歇性缺氧暴露，而不能模拟重要的 OSA 特征，例如反复发生高碳酸血症和增加吸气努力。为了规避其中的一些问题，开发了一种新的涉及非侵入性应用反复气道阻塞的小鼠模型。一个电子控制的气囊系统放置在小鼠的鼻子前面，充气导致呼吸阻塞，而气囊放气时则发生自发性呼吸。该设备在 29 只麻醉小鼠上进行了测试，通过测量吸气努力和动脉血氧饱和度（SaO₂）来评估。施加反复阻塞性呼吸暂停（每次 6 秒，每小时 120 次）持续 6 小时导致 SaO₂ 波动至达到 84.4±2.5%的最低值，摆动类似于 OSA 患者。这种能够在小鼠中施加受控反复气道阻塞的新型系统是研究 OSA 相关方面的一种易于使用的工具。
