I am currently performing a cutaneous delayed type hypersensitivity test
on balb/c mice. This test requires the measurement of mouse ear thickness
on a mouse sensitized and elicited with the oxazalone hapten and on a
control. The inflammation produced on a mouse treated with oxazalone is
not striking, therefore measuring the difference in inflammation
between the two groups has become a problem. I am currently using
calipers that are sensitive to 0.00 mm and measure at the same point on
each ear. The problem is when I measure the same ear twice I get
measurements of .5mm for the first measurement and .32mm for the second
measurement. I am afraid that when I measure an inflamed ear I could be
either-- putting too much pressure and squeezing the ear thus giving a
smaller measurement or not putting enough pressure on the ear and
receiving larger measurements. I have tried to measure the ears putting a
maximum amount of pressure with the calipers but this does not give very
good results since inflamed ears measure the same thickness as normal
ears. If any of you have any good ideas please write me e-mail at
absolute at leland.stanford.edu or post on this newsgroup.
Thank you very much for your time and knowledge,
Greg
