Tufts Comparative Pathology Services was established to help Tufts University and Tufts Medical Center researchers with their animal pathology projects. Our services also are available to external investigators. We are located on the Boston campus of the Tufts Health Science Center.
Our team is made up of a comparative pathologist, veterinary pathology technician, and a research histologist. Our goal to help you accomplish your research objectives with more efficiency, less cost, and better results whenever possible. We want to help you avoid the common pitfalls.
Services
We have a limited number of tests that we can provide in house, such as hematocrit, urinalysis, and blood glucose. We can make and stain blood smears. For most other clinical pathology requests, we send samples to a reference lab by overnight delivery. We highly recommend using a laboratory that specializes in animal, rather than human, blood samples. We only refer investigators to labs that have well established practices for validation of tests for research animal species.
If you have a need for any hematology, serum clinical chemistry, or cytology, our staff will be pleased to recommend a reference lab and test codes to meet your needs, package and ship your samples according to IATA/DOT requirements, and answer any clinical pathology questions you may have.
- Help selecting the most appropriate tests from the list of available tests
- Guidance on which blood tubes to use
- Blood collection
- Often we have microtainer blood tubes available to give you at no charge from a reference lab
- Guidance on optimal collection techniques (hematology labs will refuse samples if there are visible clots in the sample, because clots make the cell count results inaccurate)
- Helpful tips on how to get the most data out of tiny rodent blood volumes
- Recommendations on how to establish normal reference values to use in your study
- Training and instruction on how to make optimal blood smears
Turn to the Tufts Comparative Pathology Services if unexpected morbidity or mortality occurs. Gross diagnostic necropsies approved by the veterinary staff are performed for the cost of the supplies as part of the Tufts Comparative Medicine Services (Tufts CMS) health monitoring and disease surveillance program. Following gross necropsy, the pathologist will give you a cost estimate for optional histology or ancillary testing that we recommend for diagnosis. Tufts CMS monitors daily the health of all animals under our care, and actively monitors for and excludes infectious diseases that could cause harm to the animals as well as affect your research study.
If you have an occurrence of unexpected morbidity or mortality in your research group, please contact the Tufts CMS Veterinary Services immediately for veterinary care. Just as humans and domestic animals can unexpectedly get ill or die, sporadic illness and deaths can occur in research animals. Research animals, like domestic animals and people can have congenital diseases, can get diseases related to aging, and can develop tumors. Infectious disease is one of least likely causes of disease in Tufts research animals as Tufts CMS maintains rodents as specific pathogen free for a large number of rodent infectious diseases.
Contact any of the Tufts CMS Veterinary Services immediately if you have an ill animal. Contact the pathologist, Lauren Richey, to initiate a diagnostic pathology service request.
The Tufts Comparative Pathology service can provide the following services to assist you in determining the phenotype of a genetically engineered mouse.
- Complete phenotype pathology screen (first tier evaluation)
- Second tier in depth evaluation of organ systems found to be abnormal in screens
- Limited phenotyping screening of one or more organs or organ systems.
- Knowledge of lesions common in the background strain and significance to your model
- Phenotyping plan design
- Necropsy, tissue collection, and documentation of gross changes
- Optimal tissue trimming, slide production, and histologic examination of tissues
- Training in phenotype evaluation of particular organ systems
- References for general anatomy, microanatomy, and pathology assessment most applicable to your project
Many excellent references are available that describe the basic pathology phenotyping process for mice.
The Tufts Comparative Pathology Services provides Tufts University, Tufts Medical Center, and external researchers with expertise not only in pathology but in animal anatomy, physiology, and comparative medicine.
Please consult with our pathologist, Lauren Richey, if you could use:
- project consultation during study design
- assistance with selection of an animal model
- information on known limitations of the chosen model
- help determining experimental timepoints or endpoints based on knowledge of pathophysiology
- assistance developing methods to address your specific pathology objectives
- a review of the normal histology of the organs you study