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Chemyx: In a Fix - The Ins and Outs of Laboratory Animal Perfusion

Animal perfusion is important for a plethora of operations including multiple in vivo imaging modalities and targeted gene/drug delivery. Perfusion takes the right reagents, the right parameters, and a steady hand. Perfusion sounds relatively simple, but the subtleties involved makes reproducible execution challenging in practice.

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erfusion is a vascular technique used to prepare tissues for immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization analysis in anesthetized animals. This terminal procedure inserts a hypodermic needle into the left ventricle or aorta to inject fixative solutions throughout the circulatory system and targets organs within seconds. The process of perfusion can be relatively easy to explain, yet the subtleties involved in executing this technique make it a challenge in practice. The following discussion outlines essential considerations for efficient whole-body animal perfusion along with perfusion-based applications.

References

1. H.B. Waynforth and P.A. Flecknell, "Experimental and Surgical Technique in the Rat," Academic Press (2nd Ed), 1992.

2. G.J. Gage, et al., "Whole Animal Perfusion Fixation for Rodents," J Vis Exp (65): 3564, 2012.

3. X. Zhang et. al., "Near-infrared molecular probes for in vivo imaging," Curr Protoc Cytom 12:27, 2012.

4. B.M.W. Tsui and D.L. Kraitchman, "Recent Advances in Small-Animal Cardiovascular Imaging," ...

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