{"id":2792,"date":"2019-05-29T09:24:29","date_gmt":"2019-05-29T13:24:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ngrrc\/?page_id=2792"},"modified":"2020-08-11T12:22:41","modified_gmt":"2020-08-11T16:22:41","slug":"considerations-for-your-gnotobiotic-experimental-design","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ngrrc\/resources\/considerations-for-your-gnotobiotic-experimental-design\/","title":{"rendered":"Considerations for your gnotobiotic experimental design"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 class=\"www-somHeader\">Considerations for Your Gnotobiotic Experimental Design<\/h2>\n<p class=\"lead\">There are special issues to consider when planning gnotobiotic experiments beyond those of routine scientific design.<\/p>\n<p class=\"lead\">Please contact us using our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ngrrc\/request-inquiry\/\">Request\/Inquiry Form<\/a> to start a discussion about experimental plans, mice, services, and feasibility. The purpose of these discussions is to design experiments that are practical and efficient in the gnotobiotic setting and meet your research needs.<\/p>\n<h3>Number of isolators:<\/h3>\n<p> Each germ-free study or selective colonization, whether with a single strain or combination of strains, need to be housed in a separate isolator, since the transfer of microbes can occur between cages within an isolator.\u00a0 Larger Trexler isolators can house up to 12 cages of mice, although we recommend no more than 8 for technical reasons.\u00a0 Small Trexler isolators can house up to 6 cages of mice.\u00a0 It is possible to house several mouse strains colonized with identical microbes within different cages in the same isolator.<\/p>\n<h3>Type of housing<\/h3>\n<p>Germ-free or selectively, gnotobiotic mice need to be maintained under gnotobiotic conditions.\u00a0 Options include large or small Trexler isolators (maximum 12 vs 6 cages, respectively, see above \u201cNumber of isolators\u201d) or individually contained cages (IsoCage system) where each cage is a functional isolator.\u00a0 We currently restrict IsoCage housing to 4 weeks, preferably 2 weeks, and suggest that studies requiring longer colonization or frequent manipulations (serial gavages, injections, etc) be done in Trexler isolators.\u00a0 Fecal transplant studies into ex-germ-free are best done in our BSL2 cubicle or IsoCages rather than gnotobiotic isolators.<\/p>\n<h3>Constraints on numbers<\/h3>\n<p>We are able to accommodate requests for fewer than 24 mice without limitations on sex and tight age distribution more rapidly than those with limitations.\u00a0Requests larger than 24 mice require careful planning, as do those with sex and tight age restrictions.<\/p>\n<h3>Location of studies<\/h3>\n<p>We offer 4 options for services:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Shipping germ-free mice to an investigator;<\/li>\n<li>On-site experiments with mice shipped to the investigator at the end of the experiment;\n<li>On-site experiments with local (UNC) harvest of tissues by our trained technicians. The tissues are then sent to the investigator;<\/li>\n<li>On-site experiments with tissues locally harvested by the investigator\u2019s staff in conjunction with our trained technician.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The decision on which option is optimal is best reached by a discussion with the NGRRC leadership, taking into account the requesting investigator\u2019s access to gnotobiotic facilities at their own institution, duration of the experiment and the experimental design.\u00a0 It is often less costly to fly an investigator or team member to our facility to harvest mice than to ship germ-free or gnotobiotic mice by air freight.<\/p>\n<h3>Keep it simple!<\/h3>\n<p>The realities of gnotobiotic experiments are that manipulations are difficult in the isolator where bulky gloves are required that limit dexterity of the manipulator and each isolator is expensive to maintain. Thus, we recommend the use of no more than 3 concurrent isolators (3 separate microbial colonization or 2 groups + germ-free controls), low numbers of mice, and relatively simple manipulations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Number of isolators: Each germ-free study or selective colonization, whether with a single strain or combination of strains, need to be housed in a separate isolator, since the transfer of microbes can occur between cages within an isolator.\u00a0 Larger Trexler isolators can house up to 12 cages of mice, although we recommend no more than &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ngrrc\/resources\/considerations-for-your-gnotobiotic-experimental-design\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Considerations for your gnotobiotic experimental design\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93213,"featured_media":0,"parent":2230,"menu_order":22,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"templates\/front-page.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-2792","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","odd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Considerations for your gnotobiotic experimental design | National Gnotobiotic Rodent Resource Center<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ngrrc\/resources\/considerations-for-your-gnotobiotic-experimental-design\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Considerations for your gnotobiotic experimental design | National Gnotobiotic Rodent Resource Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Number of isolators: Each germ-free study or selective colonization, whether with a single strain or combination of strains, need to be housed in a separate isolator, since the transfer of microbes can occur between cages within an isolator.\u00a0 Larger Trexler isolators can house up to 12 cages of mice, although we recommend no more than &hellip; 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