COMPARISON OF EFFECTS OF RESTRAINT, CAGE TRANSPORTATION, ANESTHESIA AND REPEATED BLEEDING ON PLASMA-GLUCOSE LEVELS BETWEEN MICE AND RATS

We examined the effects of handling, cage transportation, anaesthesia and repeated bleeding on plasma glucose levels in mice and rats. Plasm a glucose was determined using a compact glucose analyser Antsense(R), which provides a quick and accurate method without the necessity for special specimen preparation. In mice, plasma glucose was significantl y elevated after primary handling or cage transportation. Anaesthesia increased plasma glucose levels two-fold, whilst repeated bleeding ind uced a rapid hut transient increase. However, it was found to be possi ble to sample plasma glucose levels at one-hour intervals without any apparent effect on plasma glucose level as a result of stress from the sampling procedure. In contrast, the same set of procedures i.e. hand ling, cage transportation and anaesthesia, when performed on rats, see med to have small or no observable effect on levels of plasma glucose. These results show the importance of the sampling procedure when dete rmining plasma glucose in mice. It is recommended that the procedure w hich causes the least influence on endogenous glucose levels should be the method of choice and that animals should be acclimatized to the p rocedure, by appropriate handling, prior to sampling.