Platform for Animal Models and Experimental Surgery
The Animal Facility and Experimental Surgery Platform is located in the Licinio Building attached to the Virgen de las Nieves University Hospital, and offers users advice and the necessary equipment to carry out research projects, teaching and other activities with experimental animals, ensuring animal welfare and compliance with legal and ethical standards. One of the most innovative features of this platform is the existence of fully equipped operating rooms, for both experimental and teaching surgery and microsurgery. The Center's Animal Experimentation Ethics Committee (CEEA) is managed from the Platform, in charge of evaluating and authorizing, when appropriate, the experimental procedures that are requested to be carried out in these facilities.
The ibs.GRANADA belongs to the COSCE agreement for transparency in animal experimentation.
It is located in the basement of the External Consultation Center of the Virgen de las Nieves University Hospital. It currently has an area of 907 m2
Surgical area:
- Operating room service for experimental surgery and teaching.
- Provision of clothing necessary for access.
- Veterinary technical advice and support.
- Anesthesia service, monitoring and postoperative care of animals.
- Sterilization of surgical material.
Animal Facility Area:
- Breeding of special models to meet the needs of experimental projects.
- Quarantine and control of the health status of animals (parasitic, microbiological and virological), in accordance with the criteria proposed by FELASA.
- Maintenance: cage change, diet, drink, cage labeling.
- SPF area material sterilization: chips, cages, feed.
- Veterinary advice on animal welfare and on the choice of the most suitable model, maintenance and feeding conditions, reproduction.
- Provision of clothing necessary for access
- Veterinary technical advice and support.
- Update on everything related to compliance with the regulatory legislation on the use of animals for teaching and research.
- Training of personnel involved in animal experimentation.
- Notification of specialized courses.
Laboratory Area:
- Nucleic acid purification (DNA / RNA)
- Quality Control Purified Nucleic Acids: Experion / Nanodrop Bioanalyzer
- Qualitative and real-time PCR amplification techniques
- Realization (hybridization) and reading of microarrays
- Ultracentrifugation.
- Spectrophotometric determination of enzymatic activities
- Performance of immunoassay techniques (ELISA, WesternBlot)
- Determination of leukocyte formula / complete blood count in samples of animal and / or human origin.
- Determination of plasma levels of cytokines by flow cytometry both in plasma of animal and / or human origin.
- Determination by automatic serum biochemistry analyzer of parameters in serum samples of animal and / or human origin: Glucose, Urea, Total Cholesterol (HDL and LDL) Triglycerides, Apoenzymes A and B, Uric Acid, Transaminases (GOT / GPT, GGT) Phosphatase alkaline, total protein, creatinine, calcium, phosphorus, total bilirubin, direct bilirubin, lactic dehydrogenase, amylase, iron, lipase, chlorine, sodium and potassium.
- Determination by electrochemiluminescence of hormonal parameters of samples of animal and / or human origin: thyroid hormones, anemia, cardiac, bone, growth and tumor markers, etc ...
specific services:
- LIC 01 - Micromethod of Animal and Human Experimentation
- LIC 02 - Isolation of blood components
- LIC 03 - Isolation of Mononuclear Cells
- LIC 04 - Determination of Creatinine in urine samples
- LIC 05 - Determination of lipid profile in rodent plasma samples
- LIC 06 - Extraction and quantification of cortisol levels in hair samples
The Animal Facility and Experimental Surgery Platform is divided into experimental areas:
Surgical area: Consisting of two fully equipped operating rooms, a material preparation room and a warehouse for said material. The operating rooms are equipped with gas equipment and are suitable for performing laparoscopic techniques, including video equipment to be able to view the interventions on a monitor installed in the meeting room outside the operating rooms. This area includes the Microsurgery Area, provided with all the material and equipment necessary to perform various microsurgery techniques in experimental animals: magnifying glasses, surgical microscopes.
Animal Facility Area: Authorized by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Junta de Andalucía responsible for reviewing and supervising the facilities according to current legislation, it is separated from the rest of the operating room and laboratory facilities, although within the Experimental Unit. It is registered in the national registry as the Center for Breeding and User of experimental animals, code ES-180870000163. This area is made up of 6 cells for animal storage, destined to the following functions: 1 quarantine cell, 1 cell for mice, 1 cell for rats, 1 cell provided with two isolation cabins to house transgenic rodents, 1 cell for rabbits. and 1 cell for pigs under 30 kg. It also has a storage area for clean material, another area for SPF material, a washing area and a changing room for researchers.
General and Support Laboratory Area: This area is made up of four small experimentation laboratories with the capacity to carry out different experimental techniques:
- Molecular Biology Laboratory, exclusively intended for nucleic acid isolation, purification and amplification techniques, as well as for microarray techniques.
- General Laboratory where the general use equipment is located, such as centrifuges, optical microscope, pH, balances etc… In this area the presence of an ultracentrifuge stands out (maximum of 100.000 G).
- Room duly isolated from other facilities and fully equipped for use with cell cultures including CO2 incubators and laminar flow cabinets.
