Partial hepatectomy in the mouse: technique and perioperative management

Area of Science:

• Surgical Research
• Hepatology
• Mouse Models

Background:

• Hepatic surgery in mice presents significant challenges due to liver fragility, difficulty in establishing intravenous access, and a high risk of hemorrhage.
• Studying liver regeneration after surgical resection requires a reliable and safe method for partial hepatectomy in murine models.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel, rapid, and safe technique for performing partial hepatectomy in mice.
• To establish a standardized procedure for resecting specific liver lobes to achieve a consistent percentage of hepatic resection for regeneration studies.

Main Methods:

• A technique involving general anesthesia, a small upper midline incision, and silk sutures for lobe ligation was employed.
• The three most anterior lobes, contributing approximately 68% of the liver mass, were resected.
• Perioperative management included warming pads, lights, and subcutaneous saline injections to minimize morbidity.

Main Results:

• A safe two-thirds hepatic resection was successfully performed in 288 out of 300 C57BL6 mice, achieving a 96% success rate.
• Perioperative mortality was minimal and primarily attributed to technical errors.
• The developed technique resulted in minimal long-term morbidity in the surviving mice.

Conclusions:

• The novel technique provides a safe, rapid, and reproducible method for performing significant partial hepatectomy in mice.
• This procedure facilitates the study of liver regeneration and can be adapted for various types of hepatic resections in murine models.
• The described operative technique and perioperative management are applicable to a broader range of intra-abdominal surgical research in mice.