Submental Vein blood collection

For large amounts of blood (50-100µL)- Not for the faint hearted

For small blood samples or serial blood collection try tail vein first.

What you need:

• Anesthesia (Iso in the surgery room works well)
• 23G needles or lancet
• Blood collection tubes

How to:

• Anesthetise the mouse (enough to keep the mouse unconscious for a 1-2 minutes).
• Once the mouse is anesthetised tightly scruff the mouse just below the ears. The scruff is important as you get the "Landmark" from the mouse's fur
• The blood collection point is either to the left or right of the midline right above the change in colour of the fur and below the pink on the mouse chin (refer to image)
• Hold the needle at a 30° angle from the mouse's body
• Insert the needle (or lancet) in a quick in-out action about the depth of the beveled end. (Do not insert too deep as you will cause perfuse bleeding in the mouth)
• Bleeding should start in a second. Keep the skin taught to continue having blood pour release the scruff to stop the bleeding.
• You can collect blood once from each side (Maximum of 100µL total) before the mice need to be left to recover to restore blood volume
• For a more detailed protocol and other approaches read this:
  https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9936856/