A modified technique for thymectomy in adult mouse with no ventilation support

作者：Zhao, Chenchen; Zeng, Hui; Yu, Zhengya^*

来源：Scandinavian Journal of Laboratory Animal Science, 2017, 43(1): 1-5.

• NAIVE T-CELLS
• MICE

Thymectomy in adult mice, a method to eliminate newly produced naive T cells, has proved valuable in various immunological studies. However, pneumothorax is the primary cause of high mortality while preforming the traditional thymectomy technique. Although modified techniques utilizing mechanical ventilation support can reduce the occurrence of pneumothorax, it may increase operational complexity and cause ventilation-induced lung injury, which could interfere with subsequent investigations by causing inflammation and a series of immune responses. To solve this problem, we developed a novel technique using pleural ligations to replace ventilation support before thymus removal. Our method not only reduced the incidence of pneumothorax but also caused less disturbance to the immune system. No thymic residue was found by postoperative autopsy and a distinct decrease of T cells in peripheral blood was detected by flow cytometry analysis. The mortality rate was 3.3%, which is comparable to the ventilation-support technique, yet the new procedure is simpler and faster. This technique provides both reliability and simplicity for thymectomy in adult mice.

• 出版日期2017
• 单位首都医科大学; 北京地坛医院