cardiac puncture

Blood was obtained by direct cardiac puncture for cholecystokinin assay.

The normal method of collection is cardiac puncture, where they take a needle and insert in between the ribcage into the heart.

Blood counts Blood was obtained by cardiac puncture at sacrifice and assayed within 3 hours of collection.

Therefore, 12 h after animals were challenged with E coli , they were anesthetized with intraperitoneal pentobarbital (50 mg/kg) and exsanguinated by open cardiac puncture.

After cleaning the chest wall with Hibitane (ICI Pharmaceuticals, Wilmslow, UK), blood was collected by closed chest cardiac puncture (to avoid handling of the bowel during collection of blood).

Blood and Organ Collection and Analyses Blood samples were collected by cardiac puncture at necropsy and the plasma stored at -20 C. Final body mass and total body length were also recorded at this time.