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Sudden death in miniature pigs

Lab Animal volume 37, pages 65–66 (2008)Cite this article

Fluorescent dyes or fluorochromes can be useful tools for analyzing changes in bone morphology. Their presence in bone sections indicates site, time and amount of bone deposition, which cannot be determined using conventional histological techniques1. Fluorescent dyes were originally used for metal titration because they chelate with metals but are now also used to stain calcified tissues. Yellow tetracyclines, xylenol orange, alizarin red derivatives and green fluorescein derivatives such as calcein can be easily distinguished in bone by the color of their fluorescence. They all share a common iminodiacetic acid group, which chelates with calcium hydroxyapatite, the principal mineral in bone and teeth. Fluorochromes are administered systemically and incorporated into bone during the mineralization phase of ossification. When treated bone is examined under fluorescence microscopy, these fluorochrome dyes exhibit photoluminescence that allows identification of the mineralized tissue. Filter sets for fluorescence microscopy can be chosen for selective excitation of single fluorochromes, or broad band filters may be used for simultaneous visualization of several fluorochromes1. The administration of several fluorochromes, distinguishable by color, offers distinct advantages over single labels. For example, evaluating the distance between different fluorochromes administered at different times shows both the deposition of bone during a specific time period and the direction of ossification1.

We used eight 2-year-old female Göttingen miniature pigs (Ellegaard Göttingen Minipigs ApS, Dalmose, Denmark) that weighed on average 45 kg in our study. We created cavities in the premolar and molar regions of the upper and lower jaws that measured 30 mm × 10 mm by surgically removing the teeth in these locations. The pigs were anesthetized during the procedure, and postoperative analgesia consisted of buprenorphine (Temgesic, Essex Pharma, Grünenthal, Germany) administered every 8 h for 3 d and carprofen (Rimadyl, Pfizer GmbH, Karlsruhe, Germany) given once a day for an additional 7 d. In the first four weeks after surgery we also gave the antibiotic enrofloxacin (Baytril-10%, Bayer AG, Leverkusen, Germany) daily to the pigs. After a healing period of 8 weeks, we then added autologous bone collected from the pig's iliac crest or fibula to the cavities.

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Figure 1
Figure 2: Sections of lung from the minature pig shown in Figure 1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Charité Campus Virchow, Augustenburger Platz 01, Berlin, 13353, Germany

    Baerbel Ruehe &  Katja Nelson

  2. Department of Veterinary Pathology, FU-Berlin, Robert von Ostertag Str. 10, Berlin, 14165, Germany

    Olivia Kershaw

  3. Department of Radiology, Charité Campus Virchow, Augustenburger Platz 01, Berlin, 13353, Germany

    Stefan Niehues

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  1. Baerbel Ruehe
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  2. Olivia Kershaw
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Correspondence to Baerbel Ruehe.

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Ruehe, B., Kershaw, O., Niehues, S. et al. Sudden death in miniature pigs. Lab Anim 37, 65–66 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/laban0208-65

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