Got pure blood in fetal rats?

Abstract

Have you felt frustration when fetal blood is needed for your studies in rats, or have you been concerned about fetal rat "blood" collected from decapitation? The traditional approach has been to collect fetal blood from decapitation of fetuses. The new method of collecting fetal blood is from the fetal heart, and makes it possible to obtain pure fetal blood at near-term in rodents for fetal studies. This study also demonstrated a significant difference of fetal blood oxygen levels between the traditional and new methods of blood collection.