Day 7

Microinjections

Today was a CRAZY day! We ran a total of five groups.  I helped run three of them, all of which were in group C.  All rats in group C1 and all but one rat in group C2 received 0.1M MSG (salty), and all rats in group C3 and one rat in group C2 received .01M saccharine (bitter).  Because this was the first round of microinjections for this group of rats, their left cannula needed to be painted with the purple nail polish.  The rats in group C squirmed more during injections than the rats in group A and group B, but that may have been because it was their first time undergoing microinjections.  It took two tries for the air bubbles to move in both tubes and the CDP to be injected for one rat, and it took two tries for the CDP to be injected into the right side of another rat.  Both of these rats seemed to have a clogged cannula.  All other injections were good.  We agitated the cannulae of group D rats so they will be ready for microinjections tomorrow.  The dummy in the left cannula for two different rats in group D was very tight and needed to be cleaned.  It was difficult to put the dummy back into the cannula, so we took it out and cleaned it because we were scared it would break in the rat’s cannula if we tried to put it back in.  Microinjections continued for group B this afternoon.