title: Development of a novel chronic intermittent hypoxia chamber.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To develop a novel chronic intermittent hypoxia chamber for rat models.
  
  
  METHODS
  The intermittent hypoxia chamber included two animal cabins (28 × 20 × 15 cm) and a hypoxia chamber (80 × 80 × 60 cm) between them, as well as the actuating device. Pure nitrogen was fed into the hypoxia chamber continuously in order to keep the low O(2) concentration. Each animal cabin could move in and out of the hypoxia chamber with precise timing function. As a result, the animal cabins could be covered by the hypoxia chamber and got the same low O(2) concentration as in the hypoxia chamber and normal O(2) concentration as out of the hypoxia chamber. Twelve healthy, male Sprague-Dawley rats (200~250 g) were selected to test the effect of the intermittent hypoxia chamber. The O(2) concentration in the hypoxia chamber was 10 ± 0.5%, and the cycle time of intermittent hypoxia was 180 s (the hypoxia and normoxic time was 90 s, respectively). The hypoxia chamber ran 8 h per day. The arterial blood gas analysis (ABSA) of rats was conducted when the animal cabin was located inside and outside the hypoxia chamber.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The chronic intermittent hypoxia chamber ran safely and reliably. The ABSA showed that the lowest PaO(2) was 35.75 ± 4.02 mmHg and the lowest SaO(2) was 68.62 ± 8.36% when the animal cabin was covered by the hypoxia chamber.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The chronic intermittent hypoxia chamber designed by us was suitable to establish a chronic intermittent hypoxia model for rats.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesia, Second Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan, People's Republic of China. iamwindfeng@126.com
authors.forename: Chuangang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Jiming
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Bingxi
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001273:Atmosphere Exposure Chambers; D002908:Chronic Disease; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004867:Equipment Design; D000860:Hypoxia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000494:pharmacology*; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D020181:Sleep Apnea, Obstructive / Q000503:physiopathology*
chemical_list: D009584:Nitrogen; D010100:Oxygen