Sample Collection
All samples are collected from client owned animals after obtaining informed consent from owners. Urine and blood are collected prior to surgery or euthanasia. Tissue samples are collected from tissue that is removed during surgery or immediately following euthanasia. All samples are processed immediatey following collection.
Body Fluids
Body fluids are frozen in cryovials at -80oC and stored in vapor phase liquid nitrogen as:
- Whole Blood: 0.5-1.0ml aliquots
- Serum: 0.5ml aliquots
- Plasma: 0.5ml aliquots
- Urine: 0.5ml aliquots
Processing
Tumor and normal tissue are processed and stored as:
- Flash frozen aliquots stored in vapor phase liquid nitrogen (100-200 mg)
- Optimal cutting temperature compound (OCT) frozen blocks containing 1-4 small (<100mg) samples stored at -80oC
- Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded blocks containing sections that are repesentative of the frozen samples. These blocks are stored in files at room temperature.
