Page 28 - Effects of radiotherapy and hyperbaric oxygen therapy on oral microcirculation Renee Helmers

Chapter 2
the first time18 and demonstrated a robust increase in microvascular density prospectively.
The aims of this study were to develop a model in which the feasibility of performing HBOm with an optical spectroscopic-based microvascular imaging instrument could be examined and to test the hypothesis that hyperoxia-driven microvascular blood perfusion response measured in the sublingual region elicits reversible perfusional changes associated with ambient normobaric (NB) and HB hyperoxic maneuvers.
METHODS
The study guidelines and protocols for this investigation were reviewed and approved by the institutional Animal Experimentation Committee of the Academic Medical Center of the University of Amsterdam. Animal care and use was performed in accordance with the EU Directive 2010/63/EU (22 September 2010) and the Dutch Act on Laboratory Animal Experiments.
Animals
Eight male specific-pathogen free New Zealand White rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) (Charles River Laboratories France, L’Arbresle Cedex, France) with a mean body weight of 3.4±0.3 kg were used in this study. All animals were individually housed in large conventional cages (R-SUITE Enriched Rabbit Housing, Techniplast S.p.A., Buguggiate (Varese), Italy) in a light-controlled room (12 hours light/dark cycle) kept at 22±2oC with a relative humidity of 55±15% and were given 2 weeks to acclimatize to their new environment with access to a standard food pellet diet (LK-04, AB Diets, Woerden, The Netherlands) and water (acidified to pH 2.7) for consumption ad libitum. All investigations were conducted in the Academic Medical Center of the University of Amsterdam and at the same time of day (from 16:30 to 19:45). Each subject underwent induction and partial instrumentation in the laboratory animal facility before transport to a 98-m3 multiplace HB chamber in the Department of Hyperbaric Medicine for final instrumentation and the investigational procedures.
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