We are having difficulty consistently getting DBA/2 mice from the National Institute on Aging. Can anyone suggest an alternative source for 9+ month old DBA/2 mice and young controls from the same colony?
Hi Christa
The Jackson Lab keeps a rolling stock of D2s. You can usually find them at all ages in the colony.
http://jaxmice.jax.org/strain/000671.html
DBA/2 is a relatively common strain of mice, so you should be able to order them from any animal provider, like Charles River, Harlan, Janvier or any other you know. You can even order a couple of founders at Jackson Labs and establish your own colony. Apparently there is currently a problem with genetic contamination with one of the source, so even if it takes more time, it might be safer to have your own colony (and test it from time to time to be sure it's genetically stable).
Pete, according to what I found on the Jackson Labs website, the oldest DBA/2 stocked is 15 weeks. When calling to order older mice, we are only offered retired breeders whose exact age is uncertain. When we use these retired breeders, we find there is a large variation in the phenotype we are studying. With the NIA's mice, the phenotype was much less variable as we could group the animals according to their actual age.
Fabrice, thank you for the suggestion! However, we only use 10 or 20 mice every five or six months so maintaining a colony would not be cost effective for us.
Hi Christa
I have the same problem of old DBA/2. Did you find an alternative source in the end?
Daozheng,
No, I have not found an alternative. We are currently aging them in house which is kind of expensive and obviously time consuming. However, in some respects, it is useful to know their history. We are trying to make the most of this by monitoring recording aspects of disease progression both for individual animals and the group.
We are still very interested in finding an institution that sells aged DBA/2 animals.
Christa,
Well, it's really a problem. I also asked a couple of companies but none of them has old DBA/2.
I'm just thinking probably we could collaborate. I need hematopoietic stem cells from bone marrow which you might not need. Or, if it works for you of course, is it possible that I buy a few aged DBA from you if you don't need them all...?
As you know, it takes time to age them by ourself so we don't really want to do that. I would appreciate it a lot if you can help us!
Daozheng
My email: [email protected]