Sampling Blood from the Lateral Tail Vein of the Rat
Name
Lee-2015-Sampling blood from.pdf
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433.5 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
Lee, Graham
Goosens, Ki Ann
Date Issued
May 2015
Journal
Journal of Visualized Experiments
Publisher
MyJoVE Corporation
Citation
Lee, Graham, and Ki A. Goosens. “Sampling Blood from the Lateral Tail Vein of the Rat.” JoVE no. 99 (2015). doi:10.3791/52766.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Blood samples are commonly obtained in many experimental contexts to measure targets of interest, including hormones, immune factors, growth factors, proteins, and glucose, yet the composition of the blood is dynamically regulated and easily perturbed. One factor that can change the blood composition is the stress response triggered by the sampling procedure, which can contribute to variability in the measures of interest. Here we describe a procedure for blood sampling from the lateral tail vein in the rat. This procedure offers significant advantages over other more commonly used techniques. It permits rapid sampling with minimal pain or invasiveness, without anesthesia or analgesia. Additionally, it can be used to obtain large volume samples (upwards of 1 ml in some rats), and it may be used repeatedly across experimental days. By minimizing the stress response and pain resulting from blood sampling, measures can more accurately reflect the true basal state of the animal, with minimal influence from the sampling procedure itself.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.3791/52766
