Comparison of the lateral tail vein and the retro-orbital venous sinus as routes of intravenous drug delivery in a transgenic mouse model

• Published in: Lab animal Vol. 37; no. 1; pp. 26 - 32
• Main Authors: Steel, C.D, Stephens, A.L, Hahto, S.M, Singletary, S.J, Ciavarra, R.P
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Nature Publishing Group US 2008; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: Animal Models; Animals; Behavior, Animal - drug effects; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Bone Marrow - drug effects; Bone Marrow - pathology; Complications and side effects; drug delivery systems; drugs; Female; Flow Cytometry; Genetically modified mice; Injections, Intravenous; intravenous injection; Life Sciences; Macrophages - drug effects; Macrophages - pathology; Male; Methods; Mice; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Mice, Transgenic; Models, Animal; Orbit - blood supply; Orbit - drug effects; Orbit - pathology; research-note; Specific Pathogen-Free Organisms; Spleen - drug effects; Spleen - pathology; Stress, Psychological - chemically induced; Stress, Psychological - physiopathology; Stress, Psychological - psychology; Tacrolimus - administration & dosage; Tacrolimus - analogs & derivatives; Tail - blood supply; Veins; Veterinary Medicine/Veterinary Science; United States
• ISSN: 0093-7355; 1548-4475
• DOI: 10.1038/laban0108-26

In mice, intravenous injections are commonly administered in the lateral tail vein. This technique is sometimes difficult to carry out and may cause stress to mice. Though injection through the retro-orbital venous sinus can provide certain advantages over lateral tail vein injection, this method is poorly defined and infrequently used. To compare the efficacy of these two routes of drug delivery, the authors injected MAFIA transgenic mice with the depletion agent AP20187, which selectively induces apoptosis in macrophages. Each mouse received five consecutive daily injections through either the lateral tail vein or the retro-orbital venous sinus. The authors then compared macrophage depletion in different tissues (lung, spleen, bone marrow and peritoneal exudate cells). Both routes of injection were similarly effective. A separate experiment using BALB/c mice indicated that retro-orbital venous sinus injection was the less stressful of the two methods.