Lobar lung transplantation in the mouse

Background: As an important supplementary approach to clinical in orthotopic lung transplantation (LTx), lobar LTx currently lacks a stable animal model and in the orthotopic left LTx model, the right lung of the donor mouse is completely removed and discarded. We introduce a novel mouse lobar LTx model that potentially provides a mouse model for clinical lobar LTx and increase the utilization rate of the experimental donor. Methods: Lobar and orthotopic left LTx were performed in syngeneic strain combinations. We performed micro-computed tomography and tested arterial blood gases to assess the graft function 28 days after transplantation. Hematoxylin-eosin and Masson's trichrome staining were used to evaluate pathological changes. Results: We performed ten lobar LTx with an operation success rate of 90%, accompanied by ten orthotopic left LTx from the same donors with an operation success rate of 100%. The graft preparation for lobar LTx was longer than that of the orthotopic left LTx (42.11 +/- 3.79 vs. 30.10 +/- 3.14 minutes, P<0.001). The recipient procedure for lobar LTx was nearly equivalent to the orthotopic left LTx. The graft function and histopathological changes for lobar LTx were comparable to those of orthotopic left LTx 28 days after transplantation. Conclusions: We describe a lobar LTx model in the mouse, which potentially provides a model for clinical lobar LTx and effectively addresses the issue of resource wastage in the orthotopic left LTx model.