A Controlled Mouse Model for Neonatal Polymicrobial Sepsis

Neonatal sepsis remains a global burden. A preclinical model to screen effective prophylactic or therapeutic interventions is needed. Neonatal mouse polymicrobial sepsis can be induced by injecting cecal slurry intraperitoneally into day of life 7 mice and monitoring them for the following week. Presented here are the detailed steps necessary for the implementation of this neonatal sepsis model. This includes making a homogeneous cecal slurry stock, diluting it to a weight- and litter-adjusted dose, an outline of the monitoring schedule, and a definition of observed health categories used to define humane endpoints. The generation of a homogeneous cecal slurry stock from pooled donors allows for the administration into many litters over time, reducing the variation between donors, and preventing the use of potentially toxic glycerol. The monitoring strategy used allows for the anticipation of survival outcome and the identification of mice that would later progress to death, allowing for an earlier identification of the humane endpoint. Two main behavioral features are used to define the health scores, namely, the ability of the neonatal mice to right themselves when placed on their back and their level of mobility. These criteria could potentially be applied to address humane endpoints in other studies of neonatal disease in mice, as long as a pilot study is performed to confirm accuracy. In conclusion, this approach provides a standardized method to model newborn sepsis in mice, while providing resources to assess animal welfare used to define early humane endpoints for challenged animals.