u/LocoDucko

As the title says. It feels so unsafe and dirty, does anybody know why it’s this way in particular?

Hi all,

I don't know where else to turn to as I have been scouring the internet for help so I figured I would ask reddit at this point.

I’m planning to collect plasma/serum from mice infected with a parasite and try to identify parasite-derived cell-free DNA (cfDNA) markers in the host blood.

Has anyone here worked with cfDNA from mouse blood, especially in an infection/parasitology context? I’d really appreciate any advice on sample collection and processing.

A few specific questions:

What tubes would you recommend for mouse blood cfDNA work? I often see EDTA tubes kept on ice, as well as cfDNA stabilizer tubes like Streck, but most stabilizer tubes require much larger blood volumes (~10 mL), while I’d expect to get at most ~700 µL from a terminal cardiac puncture.

For blood collection, would cardiac puncture be the best option, or are there other methods people recommend, such as cheek/submandibular bleeding?

How do you usually spin down small blood volumes to separate plasma/serum without causing too much cell lysis?

Are there any specific precautions to minimize white blood cell lysis so host genomic DNA does not drown out the parasite-derived cfDNA signal?

Thanks in advance for any advice, protocols, or papers you’d be willing to share.