The effects of anesthesia and physical restraint on intra- and extracellular tumor pH, tumor temperature and bioenergetics in murine RIF-1 tumors

The effects of pentobarbital anesthetic and physical restraint have been evaluated in murine RIF-1 tumors in terms of their suitability in providing minimal temporal variations in core and tumor temperatures, intracellular (pHMR) and extracellular (pHF) tumor pH, and tumor bioenergetics. pHF was measured using a fibreoptic pH probe. The implications of the changes in these parameters on the combined studies of in vivo MRS and hyperthermia have been discussed. The temporal variations of core and tumor temperatures, pHF and pHMR between the anesthetised and restrained mice were statistically significant (p <0.0001, p <0.005, and p <0.0001, respectively). Differences in the temperatures between the two groups varied with time, and were maximum at about 2 h after pentobarbital. In the anesthetised mice, while there was a net increase of 0.28 pH units in pHF, there was a drop by 0.32 pH units in pHMR (p <0.001). Temporal variations of both pHF and pHMR in the restrained mice were relatively constant. In light of these findings, wherever possible, physical restraint in a suitably designed holder is suggested for immobilizing animals for magnetic resonance spectroscopy studies.