4 replies to this topic

[daveomahony]

ANYONE GOT ANY IDEAS ON HOW TO EXTRACT BLOOD FROM MICE- I FIND CARDIAC PUNCTURE VERY HIT AND MISS?

[garita]

you should try retro- orbital punction.  it's easy to manage under anaesthesia

[JunieMoon]

If you're doing a terminal proceedure, you may be able to get away with highly anesthetizing,  opening the chest and then doing a cardiac puncture...like if going to do a perfusion.  If the mice need to be saved for another day, retro-orbital could be done.  I've also seen the nicking of a tail vein and collecting a small amount there.  

Junie

[kristen13711]

daveomahony, on Feb 4 2005, 04:30 AM, said:

ANYONE GOT ANY IDEAS ON HOW TO EXTRACT BLOOD FROM MICE- I FIND CARDIAC PUNCTURE VERY HIT AND MISS?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It depends on how much blood you need.  The total blood volume in an animal's body equals approximately 6% of its total body weight.  To prevent anemia for nonterminal bleeds the guideline is you can take a volume of 1% of the body weight every two weeks.  I have found that orbital sinus bleeding works very well in the mouse model.

[jadefalcon]

Nicking the tail vein(s) with a sharp instrument like a scalpel gave me enough blood for monitoring antibody-titers, is non-terminal and I personally prefer a cut in the skin to drilling into the mouse's eye (<- dramatization!   ). The only thing you have to do for successful tail-blooding, is to make sure that the mouse is warmand therefor the peripheral vessels are wide - we use a redlight and put the mice under that 10 minutes before bleeding.

mike