The goal of the Mouse Physiology Core is to advance the understanding of digestive diseases by providing services to increase the ease and efficiency of studying the physiology and pathophysiology of mouse models, including those knockout and transgenic models in which colitis and small intestinal disease occur.

Services
1. General and detailed advice on mouse handling and breeding
The Core provides guidance in establishing and maintaining mouse colonies, including advice on breeding, adult and neonate behavior, genotyping, colony expansion, ear tagging, and how to catalogue mouse breeding crosses.
2. Metabolic cages
The Core provides six metabolic cages and assists investigators in performing balance studies, urine and stool collection, blood drawing and animal acclimatization to cages. Food and/or water intake is determined by weighing separate containers. Cages are also designed to separate urine and feces to determine waste output.
3. Genotyping
The Core offers rapid, accurate genotyping by conventional PCR to assist investigators with small laboratories. Genotyping orders may be completed in as little as three hours.
         Equipment:
         • Thermo Scientific Corp Px2 Thermal Cycler
         • Thermo Scientific PIKO Thermal Cycler
4. Histology
The Core can process (fresh or frozen), embed (paraffin or OCT), section and stain tissues samples, including animal models and humans. The Core offers a variety of stains including hematoxylin and eosin, Masson’s Tri-Chrome Blue, Periodic Acid Schiff, Von Kossa, and Sirius Red. Paraffin and frozen sections may also be archived by the Core for future studies or collaborations.
         Equipment:
         • Thermo Scientific Excelsior ES Tissue Processor
         • Thermo Scientific HistoStar Embedding Workstation
         • Thermo Scientific HM 335E Rotary Microtome
         • Thermo Scientific Tissue Flotation Bath
         • Thermo Scientific StainMate Max 10 Modular Linear Batch Stainer
         • Sakura TissueTek Glas 6400R Automated Coverslipper
5. Mouse pathology consultation
Dr. Huso will provide expertise as a second level of quality control in tissue preparation/staining and handling of pathological tissue. Dr. Huso is also an expert in the characterization of mouse models which demonstrate disease in the gastrointestinal tract.
6. Ussing chamber/voltage clamp
The Core provides equipment and training for measurement of active ion transport in cultured polarized epithelial cell models as well as mouse intestine. Dr. Tse provides training for the equipment and advice for experimental design, including methods of calculation, quality control, and data interpretation. Applications include measurement of short circuit current, trans-epithelial resistance (TER), dilution potential, and paracellular dextran flux.
         Equipment:
         • Physiological Instruments 6-Channel Voltage Clamp Connected to Easy Mount 6-Channel Ussing Chamber System
         • World Precision Instruments EVOM2, Epithelial Voltohmmeter for TER
7. Multiplex Cytokine ELISA
The Core has established a multiplex ELISA system capable of analyzing various cytokines and/or chemokines simultaneously from the same serum or tissue samples obtained from mice and/or humans. Dr. Li provides training for the equipment and advice for experimental design, including assay standardization, quality control, and data calculation and interpretation using Discriminate Functional Analysis.
         Equipment:
         • Bio-Rad Bio-Plex 200 System
         • Bio-Rad Bio-Plex Pro II Wash Station
         • Microplate Shaker

Laboratory Locations:
Ross Research Building, Room 933: Mouse colonies, metabolic cages, genotyping, histology.
Ross Research Building, Room 931: Ussing chambers/voltage clamp, EVOM2.
Ross Research Building, Room 746: Cytokine multiplex ELISA.
Broadway Research Building, Room 847: Mouse pathology consultation.

Imaging Core
Confocal