Au640 chemistry analyzer

Potential short-term and long-term toxicity of milk exosomes was assessed in female Sprague-Dawley rats (5-6 week old) (Harlan Labs, Indianapolis, IN). Wild-type rats were selected over mice to assess toxicity for the need of more blood to perform serum chemistry and hematological profiles. Animals were provided with AIN-93M diet and water ad libitum. After acclimation, animals were randomized into 4 groups (n=4) for short-term toxicity assessment and treated with a single dose of either PBS or exosomes (25 mg exosomal protein/kg b. wt.) by oral gavage, and animal were euthanized after 1, 3 and 6 h. For long-term toxicity assessment animals were randomized into 2 groups (n = 4) and treated daily with either PBS or exosomes (25 mg exosomal protein/kg b. wt.) by oral gavage. After 15 days, animals were euthanized by CO₂ asphyxiation. Blood was collected at the time of euthanasia, and hematological parameters were analyzed using whole blood by Cell Dyn 3500 hematology analyzer (Abbott laboratories, Santa Clara, CA) as described earlier [21 (link)]. Serum was used to measure various biochemical parameters of liver and kidney function by an automated AU640® Chemistry Analyzer (Beckman Coulter, Inc., Brea, CA, USA) that uses an ion selective electrode to measure various electrolytes and in-built automated spectrophotometric techniques for all other assays.