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Bone marrow aspiration from rats: a minimally invasive procedure

Lab Animal volume 35, pages 41–44 (2006)Cite this article

The process most commonly used in small rodents to harvest bone marrow requires the excision of the femurs and tibias, resulting in the death of the animal. There are several methods to harvest bone marrow from rats without killing the animal, but these tend to allow for the withdrawal of only very small amounts of bone marrow—suitable mainly for microscopic examination, but not for culture. The authors describe a simple and minimally invasive technique for harvesting bone marrow from rats; the procedure involves widely available equipment, does not require femur excision, and allows the user to harvest quantities of bone marrow suitable for culture.

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Figure 1: In preparation for bone marrow harvesting, the investigator must anesthetize and intubate the rat and shave and disinfect the thigh area.
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Figure 4: After harvest bone marrow cells were cultured in DMEM with 10% fetal calf serum to obtain an MSC-like cell population.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Pius Branzeu Center for Laparoscopic Surgery and Microsurgery, Timisoara, Romania, for providing the rats used in this study, Calin Tatu for help with photography, and Grubel Elisabeta (County Hospital Timisoara, Department of Radiology) for help with the radiographic examination.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology, University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Victor Babes”, Timisoara, Romania

    Valentin L. Ordodi,  Ani A. Mic,  Gabriela Tanasie &  Virgil Paunescu

  2. Performa Diagnostics SRL, 6 Vegetatiei St., Timisoara, Romania

    Felix A. Mic

  3. County Hospital Timisoara, 156 Iosif Bulbuca Blvd., Timisoara, Romania

    Felix A. Mic

  4. “Pius Branzeu” Center for Laparoscopic Surgery and Microsurgery, Timisoara, Romania

    Mihai Ionac

  5. Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Victor Babes”, 2 Eftimie Murgu Square, Timisoara, Romania

    Dorel Sandesc

Authors
  1. Valentin L. Ordodi
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  2. Felix A. Mic
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Correspondence to Felix A. Mic.

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Ordodi, V., Mic, F., Mic, A. et al. Bone marrow aspiration from rats: a minimally invasive procedure. Lab Anim 35, 41–44 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/laban0506-41

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