Cowley Patrick M, Roberts Clifford R, Baker Anthony J
Veterans Affairs Medical Center, San Francisco, and Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, California;, Email:
Veterans Affairs Medical Center, San Francisco, and Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, California.
Comp Med. 2019 Apr 1;69(2):95-102. doi: 10.30802/AALAS-CM-18-000060. Epub 2019 Feb 26.
Well-defined, humane endpoints aid in monitoring animal health status during disease development. Body condition scoring (BCS) is a method for assessing health status in mouse studies where wasting and death are potential endpoints. Whether BCS is useful in monitoring animals with bleomycin-induced lung injury has not been reported. Body weight (BW) is a common humane endpoint for this model, but because the lungs increase in weight as BW decreases, the animal's true physical condition could be masked when using BW as the sole endpoint criterion. Therefore, our goal here was to assess the usefulness of BCS in monitoring health status in a mouse model of lung injury. Lung injury was caused by acute instil- lation of the fibrogenic antibiotic bleomycin into the lungs through the trachea. Male C57BL/6 mice received bleomycin (0.075 U) dissolved in saline or saline alone. Bleomycin instillation led to a doubling of lung weight and decreases in both BW and BCS, compared with saline instillation. The changes in BW and BCS were significantly correlated with lung weight. When the adjusted BW was used (corrected for the increase in lung weight), the correlation was unchanged, suggesting that the increase in lung weight did not significantly mask the decrease in BW. Bleomycin instillation caused decreases in both soleus and visceral epididymal fat masses. The change in BCS was significantly correlated with both soleus and VEF mass, suggesting that BCS is reflective of the systemic loss of muscle and fat mass. Our findings suggest that BW and BCS are significantly correlated to lung injury in the bleomycin model of lung fibrosis and that BCS is an appropriate alternative humane endpoint in this mouse model.
明确、人道的终点有助于在疾病发展过程中监测动物的健康状况。身体状况评分（BCS）是在小鼠研究中评估健康状况的一种方法，在这些研究中，消瘦和死亡是潜在的终点。BCS在监测博来霉素诱导的肺损伤动物方面是否有用尚未见报道。体重（BW）是该模型常用的人道终点，但由于随着体重下降肺重量增加，仅以体重作为唯一终点标准时，动物的真实身体状况可能被掩盖。因此，我们这里的目标是评估BCS在监测肺损伤小鼠模型健康状况方面的有用性。通过气管向肺内急性滴注促纤维化抗生素博来霉素可导致肺损伤。雄性C57BL/6小鼠接受溶解于生理盐水的博来霉素（0.075 U）或仅接受生理盐水。与滴注生理盐水相比，滴注博来霉素导致肺重量加倍，体重和身体状况评分均下降。体重和身体状况评分的变化与肺重量显著相关。当使用调整后的体重（校正肺重量增加）时，相关性不变，这表明肺重量增加并未显著掩盖体重下降。滴注博来霉素导致比目鱼肌和附睾内脏脂肪量均减少。身体状况评分的变化与比目鱼肌和内脏附睾脂肪量均显著相关，这表明身体状况评分反映了肌肉和脂肪量的全身性减少。我们的研究结果表明，在博来霉素诱导的肺纤维化模型中，体重和身体状况评分与肺损伤显著相关，并且身体状况评分是该小鼠模型中合适的替代人道终点。
