The Rabbit Ear Chamber: A Study of Cell Interactions

The rabbit ear chamber was designed by Sandison (1) to allow dynamic microscopic observations of cells and tissues in living animals. His original chambers were made of two rectangular pieces of isinglass connected together to form a central observation area. Many biologists have since used the ear chamber to study infection, in particular TB granulomas, (2) tumour growth in relation to tumour kinetics (3) and the tissue reaction to implanted prosthetic materials (4). Silver (5) has examined the healing process in detail using his own modifications of the rabbit ear chamber. He found that the process of repair by the module of the macrophage, fibroblast and angioneogenesis (healing by secondary intention) was highly dependent on gradients of tissue oxygenation, pH and glucose. Collagen formation by fibroblasts, the end result of successful repair, was found to be limited by a narrow range of tissue PO2 in these studies.