Controlled Tissue Penetration Systems

>Products> Controlled Tissue Penetration Systems> RAIL™

RAIL™

Research studies have provided significant insights into
the general aging process and age-related topics such as nutrition, behavior, immunology, cancer, and neurobiology.
In such studies, concentrations of hormones, proteins, antibodies, and other metabolites and their associated
kinetics are popular biomarkers because they vary with
age. Typically biochemical assays are performed on blood samples collected following the temporary puncture of a
large target vein. Painful needle puncture can cause incre-
ases in stress hormone release which may confound blood chemistry analysis. To circumvent this issue, researchers often resort to cross-sectional study designs requiring large numbers of subjects to be sacrificed at different points in the life-span to obtained un-perturbed blood samples. This not only necessitates significant subject usage and expense, but also limits the depth of analysis and ability to detect cause and effect relationships. New minimally-perturbing blood sampling strategies are highly desired to allow serial blood sampling over the lifespan to facilitate longitudinal studies that are not confounded by stress induced by the sampling procedure itself. The RAIL system vibrates the sharp, reducing insertion force and pain for the animal. The RAIL system enables greater longitudinal study designs to investigate cause and effect relationships in aging by providing a blood sampling method that produces lower and less variability of stress hormone production in subjects.