Mouse Tail Vein Injection
JK Lab 2006
(Reference: http://www.rit.edu/~gtfsbi/hytc/IVinjection.htm)
This is for Adenoviral Delivery System. If you try to deliver plasmids, all
procedure is the same for tail-vein injection, however the material would be quite
different. For adenoviral delivery, we make total injection volume 500~600ul with
adenovirus and PBS)
Introduction
Although the mouse is easier to restrain than for the intraperitoneal injection, the
tail vein injection route requires considerable skill in locating the vein and making
sure that the needle is inserted into the vein (and not into the tissue that
surrounds the vein). Also, absolutely no air can be accidentally infected, as this
may cause air bubble blockage of blood circulation(and death of the animal).
Procedure
1. Set up a restraining device and syringe (1ml luer-lok tip syringe + 27G ½
needle) with your material.  no bubble inside the syringe
2. Prepare @50C water bath. No more than 55C, otherwise mouse will be
burn.
3. Remove mouse from the cage by its tail and place mouse into the barrel of
the restrainer. Insert the plunger and push it far enough to make that
mouse cannot move.
4. Put mouse tail into water bath to make it swollen. After 2~3 min, diameter
of vein is expanding.
5. Locate one of the two lateral veins of tail.
6. Hold the tail and restrainer at the same time!!  this is very important !!
7. Line up(bevel side up) the needle exactly in line with vein !!
8. Here is the step that takes a lot of practice to master !!
Insert the needle into vein (sounds easy, doesn’t it!!). If you are successful,
you will actually see the tip of the needle inside of the vein and the
injection will be very easy.
If you hit the right position, you can inject more than 2ml very smoothly,
otherwise, even 100ul would be very difficult to be injected.
9. If you are not in the vein, you will still see a “clearing” of the color around
the vein, but only near the injection site. Also, the tissue near the injection
site will swell up and the plunger will not move easily. In that case, stop
injecting and “try again” at a site more nearer to the body.
10. If you are unsuccessful even after trying different sites on the vein or
using the other vein, you have no choice but to return the mouse to its
cage and try a different mouse.
11. It happens quite frequently that mouse will lose its tail after tail vein
injection failure because of the infections. The tail color will turn to black,
and start to be rotten and destroyed. Therefore, you have to make a note
on the cage after tail vein injection, otherwise, Animal facility will report to
DAR.
12. Discard the needle and syringe. Tail vein injection needs a lot of practice
and skill.