Interpreting Penh in mice

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Abstract
Part of the dilemma over what Penh actually measures arises from the well-accepted use of the same plethysmograph pressure to measure tidal volume (7, 19, 23). Tidal volume measurements made with this method in the mouse provide values that are consistent with more direct measurements and mammalian scaling (23). Such a volume measurement, however, appears to be in contrast to the measurement of airway resistance in humans, as originally described by Dubois et al. (8). This classic method involves placing a human in a closed box and using the recorded box pressure to quantify airway resistance. However, procedures that use this approach in humans, that is, breathing at very high frequencies and very low tidal volumes, have been carefully designed to maximize the resistive component of the pressure while minimizing the tidal volume component. Because this method requires voluntary modifications of breathing, it obviously cannot be done in any experimental animal. As we will show, the extent to which this minimization occurs in a mouse breathing normally is in fact negligible.

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