Tulane University School of Medicine

The forced swim test is validated as an experimental approach to assess potential antidepressant efficacy in rodents. Experimental animals are placed in a tank of water and escape-related mobility behavior is quantified. The common procedures for the mouse version of this test are described.

The tail-suspension test is validated as an experimental procedure to assess antidepressant efficacy of drug treatments in mice. Mice are suspended by their tails for six minutes and escape-related behaviors are assessed. We describe procedures used in conducting the tail suspension test.

This article describes a simple model for stimulating angiogenesis in the rat mesentery. The model produces dramatic increases in capillary sprouting, vascular area and vascular density over a relatively short time course in a tissue that allows en face visualization of entire microvascular networks down to the single cell level.

Whole-organ decellularization produces natural biological scaffolds that may be used for regenerative medicine. The description of a nonhuman primate model of lung regeneration in which whole lungs are decellularized and then seeded with adult stem cells and endothelial cells in a bioreactor that facilitates vascular circulation and liquid media ventilation is presented.

Here, we present an effective and efficient method for rodent tail vein injections using a uniquely designed warming/restraining device. By streamlining the initiation of vasodilation and restraining processes, this protocol allows accurate and timely intravenous injections of large groups of animals with minimal distress.

This protocol describes the construction of an in vitro microphysiological system for studying breast cancer using primary human breast tissue with off the shelf materials.

This protocol provides detailed guidance for the initial and continued generational allotransplantation of Drosophila tumors into the abdomen of adult hosts for studying various aspects of neoplasia. Using an autoinjector apparatus, researchers can achieve improved efficiency and tumor yields compared to those achieved by traditional, manual methods.

We provide detailed methods for generating four types of tissues from human mesenchymal stem cells, which are used to recapitulate the cartilage, bone, fat pad, and synovium in the human knee joint. These four tissues are integrated into a customized bioreactor and connected through microfluidics, thus generating a knee joint-on-a-chip.