Bead study: a novel method to measure gastrointestinal transit in mice. Issue 11 (27th September 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Reed, D. E.; Pigrau, M.; Lu, J.; Moayyedi, P.; Collins, S. M.; Bercik, P.
• Is Part Of: Neurogastroenterology & motility. Volume 26:Issue 11(2014:Nov.)
• Page Start: 1663
• Page End: 1668
• Publication Date: 2014-09-27
• Subjects: Gastrointestinal system -- Motility -- Periodicals; Gastrointestinal system -- Innervation -- Periodicals; 616.33
• DOI: 10.1111/nmo.12442
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1350-1925

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" id="nmo12442-abs-0001"> <title>Abstract</title> <sec id="nmo12442-sec-0001" sec-type="section"> <title>Background</title> <p>Intestinal transit assessment in mice using existing methods requires long recording periods or euthanization of animals to localize a tracer. We have developed a novel <italic>in vivo</italic> method to assess gastrointestinal (GI) transit in mice based on a clinically used 'shapes study'.</p> </sec> <sec id="nmo12442-sec-0002" sec-type="section"> <title>Methods</title> <p>Mice (<italic>n</italic> = 70) were gavaged with 5 steel beads and barium 3 h before, with another dose of barium gavaged 10 min before imaging. Mice were fluoroscoped for 20–60 s, and then most of them were euthanized and the GI tract removed to confirm the localization of the beads fluoroscopically. The <italic>in vivo</italic> and postmortem recordings were analyzed and each bead was scored depending on its location; a total score was calculated by adding individual bead scores. Total scores obtained from the two methods were compared. A group of mice (<italic>n</italic> = 10) were examined on three occasions, before and after treatment with loperamide or prucalopride.</p> </sec> <sec id="nmo12442-sec-0003" sec-type="section"> <title>Key Results</title> <p>The stomach and cecum were consistently outlined by barium, serving as reference landmarks. There was an excellent overall correlation between <italic>in vivo</italic> and postmortem transit scores (<italic>r</italic> = 0.93). Analysis of scores for individual gut segments revealed high agreement for stomach, cecum, and expelled beads, and moderate agreement for the small bowel and colon. Gastrointestinal transit scores were decreased by loperamide and increased by prucalopride compared with baseline.</p> </sec> <sec id="nmo12442-sec-0004" sec-type="section"> <title>Conclusions & Inferences</title> <p>Metallic beads are reliably localized by videofluoroscopy <italic>in vivo</italic> within the GI tract. This novel imaging method enables repetitive measurements of GI transit <italic>in vivo</italic> and detects changes induced by motility‐modifying agents.</p> </sec> </abstract>