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Automatic Blood Sampling (ABS) is a technique for automatically drawing blood from freely moving undisturbed animals. In 2010, CMA acquired, DiLab®, the industry leader in ABS solutions and the business is now an integrated part of the CMA group.
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Advantages of ABS
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The DiLab AccuSampler® enables routine collection of small sample sizes at frequent minute intervals. The technique is predominantly used in preclinical trials. The AccuSampler has been successfully applied to many species ranging from mice through primates, in application areas such as DMPK, Safety Pharmacology, Toxicology, Biomarkers, as well as in Cardiovascular, Diabetes, and other therapeutic groups. Furthermore, the idea where to use automated blood sampling has just begun.
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• Fast method for screening of new drug leads
• Blood sampling at multiple time points from the same animal resulting in increased quality
• Samples collected at the same timepoint can be split for determi¬nation of different parameters
• Manual or automatic drug delivery
• Numbers of animals can be minimized (3R´s concept) and move freely
• No stressful handling, especially important for hormone or enzyme analysis
• Computerized data
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Manual Blood sampling is time consuming
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Blood sampling is an important step prior to the analysis in many trials. In DMPK- or toxicology research for example, the time for sampling blood is extensive and time consuming for the personnel. The planning of the sampling must also be adjusted to the working time of the staff and have limitations over weekends and over nights. Because of this, the pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk in Denmark started a project with DiLabs founding team with the aim of building an instrument that automatically could handle the collection of blood instead of manual sampling. The result became the AccuSampler and with this the first step was taken in the ABS business (Automated Blood Sampling). Blood samples can now be automatically taken without staff supervision over prolonged periods, including overnight collections.
ABS produces more accurate and reproducible results than manual sampling – the system controls volumes, actual timepoints, flow rates etc. A complete PK profile can be obtained from one animal and the animal can serve as its own reference. Less resources are needed for preparing and performing studies. The AccuSampler ® software controls the sampling which means that studies can run unattended over night. This leads to an increased sample throughput. The number of screened substances can be increased, which shortens the overall pre-clinical phase and also reduces the time to market.
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Improving Animal welfare
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In addition to the increased throughput, automated sampling also improves the animals’ welfare. Today most of the pharmaceutical companies work actively to reduce, replace, and to refine the work with test animals – the 3R guidelines. Several studies have shown that the animals are less stressed, and that levels of corticosteroids are less affected when using AccuSampler compared to manual sampling (Royo, Björk et al. in J Endocrinology 2004). Since blood is drawn from the animals without handling, the animals are not even aware of the sampling and can continue to sleep or maintain normal behavior. With the ABS technique it is also possible to use the same animal for longer study periods and also to use mice instead of rats thanks to smaller sample sizes that can be taken. Both these possibilities are highly attractive arguments for improving the work within the 3R concept
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ABS and Microdialysis
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Many decisions in drug development and medical practice are based on measuring blood concentrations of endogenous and exogenous molecules. Yet most biochemical and pharmacological events take place in the tissues. By combining the local advantages of microdialysis sampling in tissue with the benefits of systemic ABS, drug development can potentially become more cost-effective and lead to better understanding of exposure-response relationships that ultimately will help to develop better drug products.
For more info on DiLab’s ABS solutions, please see DiLab’s external homepage or contact Erik Düring, Head of DiLab directly.
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