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The utility of a nebulised intra‐tracheal rat model of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis

Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) is of particular concern to immunodeficient patients, whose mortality rates may exceed 80%. The development of an animal model that faithfully reproduces the pathophysiology of IPA would improve the studies on diagnostic and therapeutic modes, and the use of rats as a possible model for IPA seems to have been largely overlooked. Such a model could be established with the MicroSprayer IA‐1B®. Male Sprague–Dawley rats (6–8 weeks old) were rendered immunodeficient by cyclophosphamide injections and a protein‐deficient diet. On day D0, they were anaesthetised by inhalation of 5% isoflurane and infected by the intra‐tracheal aerosolisation of 100 μl of an Aspergillus fumigatus spore suspension through a MicroSprayer IA‐1B®. This inoculation process was simple and rapid, with no deaths observed during or immediately after the procedure. The rats regained consciousness within 1 min. Follow‐up data including those for clinical factors (weight changes, mortality rate), biological factors (Aspergillus antigens) and histological factors were consistent with previous studies. The advantages of this model include the ease of animal manipulation, the reproducibility of infection and the potential for repeated blood sampling.