Establishing a Mouse Model of Burn Infections with Pathogenic Bacteria

Begin with an anesthetized mouse with its back shaved.

Position the mouse with a Petri dish lid placed under its abdomen to keep the back horizontal.

Immerse a brass block in a beaker containing boiling water until it gets heated.

Meanwhile, administer an analgesic via subcutaneous injection.

Then, press the heated brass block onto the mouse's shaved back.

The heat damages the skin's outermost layer, the epidermis, and spreads to the underlying tissue, creating a burn wound.

Remove the block and inject saline subcutaneously to prevent dehydration.

Next, apply an inoculum of pathogenic bacteria suspended in a buffer.

Use a sterile cotton swab to evenly spread the bacteria over the wound.

The bacteria attach to the cell receptors using surface proteins, begin colonization, form a protective biofilm, and establish a localized infection.

This mouse model of burn infection is ready for host-pathogen interaction studies.

After anesthetizing a mouse, according to the text protocol, use a 50 blade hair clipper to shave the mouse on the back to expose as much skin as possible. Then, place the lid of a 35 millimeter petri dish underneath the mouse abdomen to keep the back in a relatively horizontal position.

Use a 10 inch by 10 inch 220 VAC hot plate to boil water in a 150 milliliter beaker. Immerse a brass block into the beaker until thermal equilibration with the water is reached. Prior to creating the burn injury, administer a subcutaneous injection of preemptive analgesics for pain relief.

Ten minutes later, while wearing thermal gloves, gently press the heated brass block to the shaved area on the back of the mouse for seven seconds to induce burn wounds. Administer 0.5 milliliters of sterile saline through subcutaneous injections. Five minutes following the induction of the thermal injury, use a pipette to inoculate 50 microliters of bacterial suspension containing 5 times 10 to the sixth CFU in PBS onto the mouse burns.

Then, by moving a sterile cotton swab in a zigzag motion on the skin, smear the aliquot on the burns to distribute the bacterial cells in the burned area as evenly as possible.