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. 2020 Jun 26;10(6):96.
doi: 10.3390/life10060096.

Rat Animal Model of Pectus Excavatum

Vlad-Laurentiu David  1 , Bogdan Ciornei  1 , Florin-George Horhat  2 , Elena Amaricai  3 , Ioana-Delia Horhat  4 , Teodora Hoinoiu  5 , Eugen-Sorin Boia  1
Affiliations

Rat Animal Model of Pectus Excavatum

Vlad-Laurentiu David et al. Life (Basel). .

Abstract

Background: pectus excavatum (PE) is the most common congenital deformity of the thoracic wall. Lately, significant achievements have been made in finding new, less invasive treatment methods for PE. However, most of the experimental work was carried out without the help of an animal model. In this report we describe a method to create an animal model for PE in Sprague-Dawley rats.

Methods: We selected 15 Sprague-Dawley rat pups and divided them into two groups: 10 for the experimental group (EG) and 5 for the control group (CG). We surgically resected the last four pairs of costal cartilages in rats from the EG. The animals were assessed by CT-scan prior to surgery and weekly for four consecutive weeks. After four weeks, the animals were euthanized and the thoracic cage was dissected from the surrounding tissue.

Results: On the first postoperative CT, seven days after surgery, we observed a marked depression of the lower sternum in all animals from the EG. This deformity was present at every CT-scan after surgery and at the post-euthanasia assessment.

Conclusions: By decreasing the structural strength of the lower costal cartilages, we produced a PE animal model in Sprague-Dawley rats.

Keywords: animal model; chest wall deformity; pectus excavatum; rat.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Sectioning the last 4 costal cartilages in Sprague-Dawley rats.
Figure 2
Figure 2
CT scan showing the depression of the sternum, 7 days from surgery (A) and CT scan of the thorax from the control group (B).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Mean inferior sagittal diameters on CT-scan images (CT1–CT5).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Haller index at the lower thoracic aperture (CT1–CT5).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Sternal funnel chest like deformity 4 weeks from surgery.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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