Day 4

Microinjections

Today we continued doing microinjections.  We tested group B using the same procedures as we did for group A yesterday.  It was a very successful day with all microinjections going well.  The only difficulty we experienced was getting rid of all the air bubbles in the tubes.  The tubes that were used for the aCSF injections continued to have air bubbles and had to be prepped multiple times before it could be used for injections.  Also, one of the injectors broke and needed to be replaced before microinjections could continue.  In the testing room, Box 1 and Box 2 are given sucrose (sweet) and Box 3 and Box 4 are given citric acid (sour).  A different concentration is given to each group creating a concentration curve.  Box 1 and Box 3 contain the rats injected with aCSF and Box 2 and Box 4 contain the rats injected with CDP.  This is the same as yesterday.  There are still a large number of rats that need surgery by Sunday.

Tomorrow: We will continue doing microinjections.  I will get to practice delivering the microinjections to a rat whose cannulae were not correctly placed in the PBN during surgery.  We cannot use this rat for research purposes (we are testing injections strictly in the PBN), and he will be replaced by a backup rat.