A skin chamber to investigate wound infection and healing in the mouse
Geerlings, P.M.; Ugarte, W.C.; Penhale, W.J.
Wounds a Compendium of Clinical Research and Practice 21(3): 79-83
2009
ISSN/ISBN: 1044-7946 PMID: 25903100 Document Number: 634827
The development of a simple, convenient, and reliable polypropylene screw-capped skin chamber, which can be inserted into mice, is described. All implanted chambers of normal immuno-competent mice (n = 10), or immuno-suppressed mice (n = 10) remained in-situ for 15 days. Wound infection was established by a clinical isolate of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in immuno-competent mice (n = 10) 1 day after chamber implantation and chambers remained in-situ for 10 days. Similar infections of wounds among mice immuno-suppressed with cyclophosphamide resulted in the mouse becoming moribund due to systemic invasion by the bacterium. The authors conclude that this mouse skin chamber will be of potential value for studying wound healing during the inflammatory and early proliferative phases, and the influence of infection and treatments on these processes in immuno-suppressed and immuno-competent mice.