Optimizing anesthesia and delivery approaches for dosing into lungs of mice

Microbes, toxins, therapeutics, and cells are often instilled into lungs of mice to model diseases and test experimental interventions. Consistent pulmonary delivery is critical for experimental power and reproducibility, but we observed variation in outcomes between handlers using different anesthetic approaches for intranasal dosing in mice. We therefore used a radiotracer to quantify lung delivery after intranasal dosing under inhalational (isoflurane) versus injectable (ketamine/xylazine) anesthesia in C57BL/6 mice. We found that ketamine/xylazine anesthesia resulted in delivery of a greater proportion (52 ± 9%) of an intranasal dose to lungs relative to isoflurane anesthesia (30 ± 15%). This difference in pulmonary dose delivery altered key outcomes in models of viral and bacterial pneumonia, with mice anesthetized with ketamine/xylazine for intranasal infection with influenza A virus or Pseudomonas aeruginosa developing more robust lung inflammation responses relative to control animals randomized to isoflurane anesthesia. Pulmonary dosing efficiency through oropharyngeal aspiration was not affected by anesthetic method and resulted in delivery of 63 ± 8% of dose to lungs, and a nonsurgical intratracheal dosing approach further increased lung delivery to 92 ± 6% of dose. The use of either of these more precise dosing methods yielded greater experimental power in the bacterial pneumonia model relative to intranasal infection. Both anesthetic approach and dosing route can impact pulmonary dosing efficiency. These factors affect experimental power and so should be considered when planning and reporting studies involving delivery of fluids to lungs of mice. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Many lung research studies involve dosing fluids into lungs of mice. In this study, the authors measure lung deposition using intranasal (i.n.), oropharyngeal aspiration (o.a.), and intratracheal (i.t.) dosing methods in mice. Anesthetic approach and administration route were found to affect pulmonary dosing efficiency. The authors demonstrate that refinements to dosing techniques can enable reductions in the number of animals needed for bacterial and viral pneumonia studies.