How Hydrogen Gas Reaches Different Organs in Mice During Inhalation
- Authors
- Wenjun Zhu, Qianqian Gu, Boyan Liu, Yanhong Si, Huirong Sun, Jingjie Zhong, Yi Lu, Dan Wang, Junli Xue, Shucun Qin
- Journal
- Heliyon
- Year
- 2022
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e10778
- Study Type
- Mouse
- Outcome
- Positive
- Peer Reviewed
- Yes
- Country
- China
- Health Condition
- General Research Model
- Body System
- Renal
TL;DR
Hydrogen gas, a potential treatment for various diseases, reaches different levels in various mouse tissues and takes longer to saturate in muscle, providing insights for effective dosing in experiments.
Key Finding
Hydrogen accumulation in mouse tissues varies significantly by organ, with kidneys reaching the highest concentrations and skeletal muscle requiring the longest time to become saturated.
Summary
Researchers measured how hydrogen gas spreads through different tissues in mice after the animals inhaled it. They found that hydrogen accumulated to different levels in different organs—the kidneys absorbed the most hydrogen, while leg muscles absorbed the least and took the longest time to become saturated (fully filled with hydrogen). These measurements help scientists understand how much hydrogen to give to mice in experiments and for how long to get the best results.
Practical Takeaway
This is a basic laboratory study in mice measuring how hydrogen gas distributes in the body—not a study testing hydrogen's health effects in humans. While the findings may help researchers design better animal studies of hydrogen's potential benefits, they don't directly tell us whether hydrogen water or inhalation would be beneficial for people.
Abstract
As an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic agent, hydrogen (H2) shows a promising potential in basic and clinical research against various diseases owing to its safety and efficacy. However, knowledge involving its underlying mechanisms of action, dosage effects, and dose duration remains limited. Previously, the dynamics of H2 concentrations in different tissues of rats after exogenous H2 inhalation had been detected by our team. Here, sequential changes of H2 concentrations in different tissues of another most commonly used experimental rodent mice were monitored in real time with an electrochemical H2 gas sensor during continuous different concentrations of H2 inhalation targeting on five tissues including brain, liver, spleen, kidney, and gastrocnemius. The results showed that the H2 saturation concentrations varied among tissues significantly regardless of the concentration of H2 inhaled, and they were detected the highest in the kidney but the lowest in the gastrocnemius. Meantime, it required a significant longer time to saturate in the thigh muscle. By comparing the H2 saturation concentrations of mice and rats, we found that there were no differences detected in most tissues except the kidney and spleen. Both gas diffusion and bloodstream transport could help the H2 reach to most organs. The results provide data reference for dosage selection, dose duration determination to ensure optimal therapeutic effects of H2 for mice experiments.