Department of Surgery, Indiana Center for Regenerative Medicine and Engineering, Indiana University School of Medicine;
Department of Surgery, Indiana Center for Regenerative Medicine and Engineering, Indiana University School of Medicine.
J Vis Exp. 2021 Feb 10(168). doi: 10.3791/61848.
Lymphedema is extremity swelling caused by lymphatic dysfunction. The affected limb enlarges because of accumulation of fluid, adipose, and fibrosis. There is no cure for this disease. A mouse tail model that uses a focal full thickness skin excision near the base of the tail, resulting in tail swelling, has been used to study lymphedema. However, this model may result in vascular comprise and consequent tail necrosis and early tail swelling resolution, limiting its clinical translatability. The chronic murine tail lymphedema model induces sustained lymphedema over 15 weeks and a reliable perfusion to the tail. Enhancements of the traditional murine tail lymphedema model include 1) precise full thickness excision and lymphatic clipping using a surgical microscope, 2) confirmation of post-operative arterial and venous perfusion using high resolution laser speckle, and 3) functional assessment using indocyanine green near infrared laser lymphangiography. We also use tissue nanotransfection technology (TNT) for novel non-viral, transcutaneous, focal delivery of genetic cargo to the mouse tail vasculature.
淋巴水肿是由淋巴功能障碍引起的肢体肿胀。受累肢体由于液体、脂肪和纤维组织的积累而增大。目前这种疾病尚无治愈方法。一种使用尾巴底部的全层皮肤切除来造成尾巴肿胀的小鼠尾巴模型，已被用于研究淋巴水肿。然而，这种模型可能导致血管损伤和随之而来的尾巴坏死和早期尾巴肿胀消退，限制了其临床转化。慢性小鼠尾巴淋巴水肿模型可诱导 15 周以上的持续淋巴水肿和尾巴的可靠灌注。传统小鼠尾巴淋巴水肿模型的改进包括 1）使用手术显微镜进行精确的全层切除和淋巴管夹闭，2）使用高分辨率激光散斑确认术后动脉和静脉灌注，3）使用吲哚菁绿近红外激光淋巴管造影进行功能评估。我们还使用组织纳米转染技术（TNT）将新型非病毒、经皮、局灶性基因载体递送至小鼠尾巴血管。
