Robert,
We started the whole mouse milking thing as a joke. Myself, I think it would probably be a pretty easy thing to express the milk from mouse breasts using a simple vacuum device. It would be clean, easy, relatively non-labor intensive and wouldn't require umpteen zillion baby mice to sacrifice, which would be more labor intensive and prone to contamination. Breast pumps worked on the wife, I'm sure it would work on the mouse. Hell, she'd hear the kid start crying and the stuff would start spraying out on its own. Don't know if you've ever tried it, but it doesn't take much to express milk from a full tit, they are just wanting to give it up. You think the mouse bellies are bulging, lactating mama teats are bursting at the seams. Hell, my sister in law used to use the breast pump while she drove, it was a real head turner on the freeway.
Take it from one who has been hosed by a run away tit, it is easy to collect milk from a mouse. I wouldn't be surprised if some supply house doesn't sell a device to do it. Got to be a lot easier than collecting venom from a snake too.
OK, to settle this with you, I did a simple search using MOUSE MILKING as key words in Excite and got this as the first hit:
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Re: Mouse milk
Andy Carver (andy.carver@ppltherapeutics.demon.co.uk)
Wed, 8 Jan 1997 09:27:21 +0000
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Previous message: R. Ashman: "Mouse milk"
Hello Bob
The answer is yes, quite easily. I believe there are published methods
for mice (Simons et al Nature 328 1987) and Rats (Shin-Ichi Hochi et al
Mol Repro & Dev 1992), and the're probably based on Morag (Lab Admin 4
1970). Both methods do the same/similar things. You need to remove the
pups from their mother for ~2hrs or so first. Then administer Oxyticin
(dose depends on weight but around 0.3 Units for a mouse works). The
animals have to be anesthetised prior to hand milking. I think you can
get mechanical milking machines and I know people also use vacuum pump
setups in preference to hand milking. The whole process takes about 5 -
10 mins and you should get at least 100ul. People tend to milk around 10
days pp. Mice do vary in 'volumes recovered' so dont be worried if you
end up with 20ul or so. You can re-milk but I would leave it a day or
two first. We usually let the mother recover fully (~1hr) before
returning her to the pups, so be prepared to keep the pups warm.
Cheers
--
Andy Carver
PPL Therapeutics
Roslin
Midlothian
Scotland
Phone 44 (0) 131 440 4777
Fax 44 (0) 131 440 4888
email andy.carver@ppltherapeutics.demon.co.uk
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Should have bet you a beer first! By the way, PPL Therapeutics is the home of Dolly the cloned wonder sheep. Guess I must have retained something from getting that MS in Zoology....
Well, that took all of a minute to settle, the longest part was typing this part of it.
Rman |
