Lung Instillation and Fixation: Introducing Liquid into the Trachea and Fixing Lungs to Measure the Fixed Lung Volume

- Lung instillation is used to introduce substance directly into the trachea for analyzing mouse lungs with cancer or other pathologies. First, place an anesthetized mouse on a slope intubation platform and shave the hair on the neck. Make a small incision with a scissor below the neck and gently pull the skin using forceps to reveal the trachea. Insert a catheter into the trachea through the mouth and observe it through an incision. Inject example liquid into the trachea and rapidly inflate the lungs by introducing air with an empty syringe to distribute the liquid properly.

Close the wound and place the mouse in a recovery chamber. After the desired period, sacrifice the mouse and expose the lungs. Inflate it with fixative to quantify total lung capacity. Place the lungs in a tube with a fixative. Measure the fixed lung volume by using the Archimedes' principle. Place the lungs into the water and press it with a wired device. Note the weight of water displaced by submerged lungs. The fraction of the lung volume in the fixed left lung is usually smaller than the one measured in vivo.

- Before beginning the procedure, manually bend the tip of a commercial 1-inch long 20 gauge intra