A homemade device for simultaneous measurement of pulmonary ventilation and metabolic rate in neonatal rodents

Various in vitro neonatal rodent models have been developed to study the control of breathing, but translation of the information requires a behavioral assay, which has led to the widespread use of plethysmography to measure breathing in awake neonatal rodents. Best practice requires correcting changes in ventilation to the corresponding change in metabolic rate, which is the main driver of pulmonary ventilation. Obtaining measures of both simultaneously is ideal, though technically difficult. Here we describe a simple, inexpensive home-made dual chamber approach for simultaneous measurement of pulmonary ventilation and metabolic rate. We found that the dual chamber provides values for pulmonary ventilation and metabolic rate that compare favorably with existing approaches.