DEVELOPMENT OF INDIVIDUAL CHAMBERS FOR ALCOHOL DELIVERY

目前，想要将实验室啮齿动物暴露于 酒精可以注射药物，通过以巧克力为基础的饮食喂养它，或者 以蒸汽的形式在密闭的容器中提供它。目前 可用的酒室包含几个笼子，每个笼子可容纳3-6个人 啮齿动物。这项第一阶段可行性研究的目的是表明 我们可以建造更小的房间，让实验室的啮齿动物(主要是老鼠) 或老鼠)在严格控制下暴露在酒精蒸气中 条件。拟建的房间将容纳1-4只老鼠或3-6只小鼠， 视重量而定。这个样机有两个主要的优点 目前可用的方法。首先，每个腔室可以单独 控制，这意味着目标血液酒精水平(BAL)可以 监管严密。第二，可以在动物身上配备永久性的 静脉或脑室内插管到生物样本 液体和/或注射治疗，而无需操纵动物或 打开内庭。在过去的8个月里，我们已经建造了6个这样的笼子 为了证明遇到的大多数问题都应该是可以解决的， 只要我们有适当的资源。这些问题包括 存在冷凝，维护环保安全 房间(即没有酒精蒸气从其中逸出)，尽管存在 用于套管通过的舷窗，以及充分性 实验室中通常可用的标准空气源可推动 酒精通过系统蒸发。需要达到的目标 在第一阶段是(1)使系统自动化，目前是 繁琐和劳动密集型，(2)带来凝结问题 其最终解决方案，(3)确保空气的最终参数 速度不会导致ACTH和皮质酮的释放 应力指标，以及(4)演示原型可以 扩大到至少12个房间。一旦原型最终敲定， 将为调查员提供一套预先组装的笼子，其中包括 必要的组成部分和图表，使他/她能够达到 以动物体重为基础的目标BALS长期商业 然而，目标是建立一个系统，不仅可以用来 提供酒精，但也提供需要控制的有毒物质， 如尼古丁、致癌物等。因此，我们认为 我们想要证明其可行性的原型将是 对需要环境安全的各种研究人员具有吸引力 并且易于使用设备来研究这些物质的影响。 建议的商业应用： 基于与同事的多次交谈，以及我们的 根据自己在该领域的经验，我们毫不怀疑这样的设备将 找到一个现成的市场，因此具有极好的商业潜力。那里 是不是有很多让啮齿动物接触酒精的调查人员，以及所有那些 不需要自愿服药就会欢迎一种好用的， 可靠、灵活且经济实惠的设备来执行此操作，这不需要 繁重的劳动。此外，这项技术还可以用来曝光 动物对酒精以外的试剂，需要包含这样的 如尼古丁、致癌物质、污染物、潜在刺激物等。 在毒理学领域取得了重大进展。

At present, investigators who want to expose laboratory rodents to alcohol can inject the drug, feed it through a chocolate-base diet, or deliver it in contained chambers in the form of vapors. Currently available alcohol chambers contain several cages which each house 3-6 rodents. The purpose of this Phase I feasibility study is to show that we can build smaller chambers in which laboratory rodents (primarily rats or mice) are exposed to alcohol vapors under tightly controlled conditions. The proposed chambers will house 1-4 rats or 3-6 mice, depending on weights. This prototype has two main advantages over presently available methods. First, each chamber can be individually controlled, which means that target blood alcohol levels (BALs) can be finely regulated. Second, the animals can be equipped with permanent intravenous or intracerebroventricular cannulae to samples biological fluids and/or inject treatments without manipulating the animals or opening the chambers. Over the past 8 months, we have built 6 such cages to demonstrate that most of the problems encountered should be solvable, provided we have the appropriate resources. These problems include the presence of condensation, the maintenance of environmentally safe chambers (i.e. from which no alcohol vapors, escape) despite the presence of portholes for the passage of the cannulae, and the adequacy of standard air sources commonly available in the laboratory to propel the alcohol vapors through the system. The objectives that need to be reached under Phase I are (1) to automate the system, which is presently cumbersome and labor-intensive, (2) to bring the problem of condensation to its final solution, (3) to ensure that the final parameters of air velocity do not lead to the release of ACTH and corticosterone, taken as indexes of stress, and (4) to demonstrate that the prototype can be extended to at least 12 chambers. Once the prototype is finalized, the investigator will be provided with a pre-assembled set of cages with all necessary components, and charts that will enable him/her to reach the target BALs on the basis of the animal's weight The long-term commercial objectives, however, are to build a system that can be used not only to deliver alcohol, but also toxic substances that need to be contained, such as nicotine, carcinogens, etc. We therefore believe that the prototype for which we want to demonstrate feasibility, will be attractive to a wide variety of researchers who need environmentally safe and easy to use devices to study the effects of these substances. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS: On the basis of numerous conversations with colleagues, as well as our own experience in the field, we have no doubt that such a device would find a ready market and thus have excellent commercial potential. There are many investigators who expose rodents to alcohol, and all those who do not require voluntary drug intake will welcome an easy-to-use, reliable, flexible and affordable device to do so, which does not require extensive labor. In addition, this technology can be used to expose animals to reagents other than alcohol, that need to be contained such as nicotine, carcinogens, pollutants, potential irritants, etc. This provides a major advance in the field of toxicology.