Hello all. I am currently starting some murine experiments after several
years of doing only human studies. Specifically, I am interested in
immune responses in mice that express a viral protein in the liver.
Most of the labs I know use cervical dislocation alone (seems like
that's because they have done it for 15 years). Our animal care
committee strongly disapproves of cervical dislocation as a method of
euthanasia. However, in the course of writing protocols for our animal
care committee, I reviewed some of the literature on methods of
euthanasia and the effect of different methods on cellular proliferation
and CTL assays. I couldn't find much, but a couple of studies showed
alterations of both Th and CTL responses when other anesthestics were
combined with cervical dislocation (eg methoxyflurane, pentobarb, or
CO2). Does anyone have any experience with different methods of murine
euthanasia? If there were any differences, were they significant or
trivial? Also, since one of the readouts of the experiments is
hepatitis, has anyone using methoxyflurane encountered this as a
significant problem?
Thanks,
Margaret Koziel
Beth Israel Deaconess Med. Ctr.
Boston MA
