In their newest (August 2019) Critical Care Medicine paper titled “Old Mice Demonstrate Organ Dysfunction as well as Prolonged Inflammation, Immunosuppression and Weight Loss in a Modified Surgical Sepsis Model.” Stortz and colleagues from Florida continue to develop the concept of “reverse translation”; this time, in the context of the recently released MQTiPSS (Minimum Quality Threshold in Pre-clinical Sepsis Studies) consensus guidelines (read here ).
The paper is centered on two objectives: a) to “reverse translate” the human response to surgical sepsis into the mouse by introducing various modifications to the widely used CLP model (e.g. daily chronic stress component) so that it more aptly adheres to current sepsis definitions, and b) to create a model that allows the study of aging on the long-term host response to sepsis. In the context of study design, the authors implemented 22 out of 29 MQTiPSS points making the current paper an excellent ‘hands-on’ demonstration of how MQTiPSS elements can be successfully incorporated into a murine study to address a defined translational objective. Given the recency of MQTiPSS, it remains to be seen whether the scientific community chooses to widely implement them.