Comparison of 2-Ethyl-Cyanoacrylate and 2-Butyl-Cyanoacrylate for Use on the Calvaria of CD1 Mice.

Short-chain cyanoacrylates (SCCA), such as ethyl-2-cyanoacrylate (KrazyGlue, Aron Alpha, Columbus, OH) are commonly used as commercial fast-acting glues. Although once used in clinical medicine as skin adhesives, these products caused tissue toxicity and thus their use in live tissue was discontinued. SCCA were replaced by longer-chain versions (LCCA), such as butyl-cyanoacrylate (Vetbond, 3M, St Paul, Minnesota), which were found to be less toxic than the short-chain formulations. Some researchers prefer to use SCCA due to the belief that they create a stronger bond than do the longer-chain counterparts. In survival surgeries, we compared the bone thickness, bone necrosis, fibrosis, inflammation, and bone regeneration in the calvaria of control (naïve), surgery-only, SCCA-treated, and LCCA-treated mice (n = 20 per group). At 1 and 14 d after surgery, all mice except those treated with SCCA showed statistically similar bone measurements to those of the naive control group. The SCCA group had significantly less bone regeneration than did all other groups. These results suggest that the application of SCCA causes bone damage resulting in the loss of bone regeneration. This finding may assist investigators in choosing a tissue glue for their studies and may support the IACUC in advocating the use of pharmaceutical-grade tissue glues.

Ulcerative dermatitis in C57BL/6 mice exhibits an oxidative stress response consistent with normal wound healing.

Ulcerative dermatitis (UD) is a common syndrome of unknown etiology that results in profound morbidity in C57BL/6 mice and lines on a C57BL/6 background. The lesions are due to severe pruritus-induced self-trauma, progressing from superficial excoriations to deep ulcerations. UD may be behavioral in origin, with ulcerative lesions resulting from self-mutilating behavior in response to unresolved inflammation or compulsion. Alternatively, abnormal oxidative damage may be a mechanism underlying UD. To evaluate whether UD behaves similarly to normal wounds, consistent with a secondary self-inflicted lesion, or is a distinct disorder with abnormal wound response, we evaluated expression levels of genes representing various arms of the oxidative stress response pathway UD-affected and unwounded C57BL/6J mice. No evidence indicated that UD wounds have a defect in the oxidative stress response. Our findings are consistent with an understanding of C57BL/6 UD lesions as typical rather than atypical wounds.