How replace normal oral food in mice? - (Feb/18/2014 )
Hi to everyone,
I need to compare the effects of an orally-administrated drug on not- and fasted mice. Are any food replacements available for mice in order to leave the gut clean and do not affect the absorption of the drug??.
Briefly, I would like to find a food replacement for i.v. or i.p. injection which could lead the animal to have a clean gut without fasting it. (food replacement for 12 h fasting)
Thanks in advance.
In theory you could look into parenteral, or i.v., nutrition. Someone, somewhere is bound to have come up with a method for it in mice. The simpler solution would be to simply fast the mice. It's not normally something you would do (and I don't really know how well-tolerated it would be), but the simplest solution is sometimes the best. I'd recommend talking to the vet at your institution about the best option. If a complete fast isn't feasible, maybe a severely restricted or modified diet would be better.
Thanks for your answer.
The issue is that i have to compare starved and not starved mice without affecting the absorption of the drug. So probably i need an i.v./i.p. nutrition but it's seems impossible to find something on literature or on the market.
This looks to be a method paper on the subject:
Total parenteral nutrition in the mouse: development of a technique
JPEN J Parenter Enteral Nutr. 1983 Nov-Dec;7(6):582-6
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6418920
I don't have access to the paper, but perhaps you'll have better luck through your library, or through the Paper Request Forum.
A PubMed search for 'total parenteral nutrition in mice' should likely bring up a few other papers.
I'd also strongly recommend talking to your facility's veterinarian. Part of their job is supposed to be to help researchers find the best, most humane, way to carry out their research. You'll need to coordinate any special feeding regimens with them anyway, so it's best to get them in the loop sooner rather than later.
thanks.. I will do that..