The 3R principles set the basis for the use of animals in research. Admescope has always been committed to the responsible treatment of laboratory animals and is also fully accredited by AAALAC International. We are continuously seeking for ways to improve animal welfare and have an internal animal welfare body dedicated for this. One of the taken 3R actions is applying microsampling techniques which reduce the number of animals needed among the several other animal welfare benefits. Importantly, also scientific benefits come in addition to the improved animal welfare.
The maximum volume of a microsample is usually considered as 50 µl, but the advanced bioanalytical techniques allow collecting as low as 5−10 µl samples. One of the available techniques is based on volumetric absorptive microsampling technology (Mitra®), where an exact blood volume is simply absorbed into an absorbent tip from a small venipuncture. With Mitra, all the required blood samples (10 µl) can be conveniently collected from the same mouse during a basic one-day PK study. However, it is good to have information about the blood-to-plasma ratio since plasma is not separated from the sample in this approach. At Admescope, also another microsampling technique is routinely used, where the blood is collected into a capillary and plasma separated prior analysis with LC-MS.
If you wish to read more about microsampling you might want to check out one of our blog posts. More information about our PK offering is available on our website and if you are interested to learn more about in vivo PK, one of our e-books could be useful for you.
Don’t hesitate to get in contact if you wish to have more information or to organise a teleconference to discuss more!
