Animal Care & Dosing, Specimen Preparation and Perfusion, and Specialized Contrast “stains”
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Our facility includes an animal housing facility that can currently house up to 60 rats and 280 mice concurrently in clean and sanitized Tecniplast seal safe cages. The ventilated racks supply each cage with 70 air changes per hour. Each cage is provided with an enrichment device and nestlets. Animal cages, racks, and accessories are cleaned and sanitized at appropriate intervals. Controls are set to maintain temperature at 18-26˚C and relative humidity of 30-70%. Lighting controls are set for 12 hours light/12-hours of darkness. |
| Animal Support: We manage the animal environment; write IACUC proposals, receive and treat animals using IP, SQ, ID, PO, IV, IM dosing methods, collect blood, perform daily observations, sanitation, housing, enrichment and record keeping. |
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| MRPath has an extensive biological support lab onsite, which houses the infrastructure for perfusion fixation, necropsy, and animal care; including microscopes, microsurgical facilities, hoods, and specialized perfusion workstations. We routinely deal with formalin and other hazardous materials. |
| In-vivo MR imaging allows the use of an animal as its own control. Longitudinal drug efficacy studies can show tumor size changes, tissue damage development and other morphological changes. Although lower resolution, in vivo studies allow fewer animals to be used. |
| Key In-vivo Areas of Expertise: •Sensitivity, reaction and duration of different anesthetics in multiple stocks and strains of mice •Administration, monitoring and recording of anesthesia, body temperature, heart rate and respiration •Fixturing for image registration •Specialized imaging protocols. |