A Method for Sampling Rat Cerebrospinal Fluid with Minimal Blood Contamination: A Critical Tool for Biomarker Studies

Sampling and analysis of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is a common clinical practice used in the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of neurological diseases. A similar interest is the sampling of CSF from rats to bridge the gap between bench-to-bedside work and to foster the development of new CSF biomarkers for clinical use. Here, we describe an improved procedure with an instrument designed in-house, by which rat CSF was successfully collected with indiscernible blood contamination (via the naked eye/surgical microscope amplification). The sampled CSF amounts were over 100 μl regardless of the animal’s body weight, hydration status, and symptoms of systemic damage including, but not limited to, seizure, delusion (such as repeated hemorrhagic self-biting), hematuria, and gastrointestinal bleeding. In adult Sprague-Dawley rats above 300 g, the sampled CSF amounts were reliably at 200 μl or above with this method. There were no deaths related to the CSF sampling procedure. In conclusion, the present method provides a reliable and reproducible approach for collecting 200 μl CSF in rats without blood contamination.

DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-9228-7_12

Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-9227-0; Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-9228-7