Hematological Comparison of the Mouse Blood Taken from the Eye and the Tail

Abstract

In general, the hematological examination of the mouse has been performed with the blood taken from the tail (by tail-cut method) and very little is known about the blood from the eye (by eye puncture method) . Studies were made using ddD strain mice in various ages whether the eye puncture method is available for hematological examination comparably with the tail-cut method.
1) As a technique, the eye puncture appeared to be more preferable than tail-cut method because of its advantages in getting a sufficient quantity of blood for the examination easily, consistently and quickly.
2) The analysis of variance demonstrated the significant differences with the erythrocyte and leucocyte counts between the bloods taken from the eye and tail of the mouse, on the other hand no difference was noted in regard to the percentage, of polychromatic erythrocyte or to the differential leucocyte counts.
The variation observed in the erythrocyte and leucocyte counts seemed to be less with eye puncture than regular tail-cut.
3) The age difference in the cell counts of the blood taken either from eye or from tail was found to be significant by the analysis of variance.