Shortcoming of the Mouse Model of Postoperative Ileus: Small Intestinal Lengths Have Similar Variations in In- and...

Background/Objectives: The mouse model of postoperative ileus separates the gastrointestinal tract into 15 sections, 10 of which are in the small intestine, to measure intestinal transit time. Usually, mice are standardised according to age or body weight. This inherently assumes that intestinal lengths are similar among the included mice irrespective of the method of standardisation. We aimed to test this assumption by comparing intestinal lengths, measuring their variability in commonly used out- and inbred strains. Methods: Mice were humanely killed, and their intestines were removed and measured in a standardised fashion. We compared the coefficients of variability via the modified signed-rank likelihood test. Results: We included 125 mice of the Crl:CD1(ICR) background and 10 mice of the C57Bl/6J and C57Bl/6NCrl substrains. The mean small intestinal length of Crl:CD1(ICR) mice was 437 mm (standard deviation 54), while it was 473 mm (standard deviation 29) in C57Bl/6J mice and 419 mm (standard deviation 57) in C57Bl/6NCrl mice. The respective coefficients of variation were 12.4%, 6.1%, and 13.6% and did not differ between the out- and inbred strains (modified signed likelihood ratio 5.878, p = 0.053). This was not the case for caecal and large intestinal lengths. Conclusions: Due to substantial variation in small intestinal length, the separation of the small intestine into ten equally sized segments to measure intestinal transit time might not be warranted. This could be addressed by measuring small intestinal transit time in absolute values and relative to the intestinal length.