Anesthetic Cocktail for Rodent Surgery

Medetomidine (Nippon Zenyaku Kogyo, Fukushima, Japan) 0.375 mg/kg, midazolam (Sandoz K.K., Yamagata, Japan) 2.0 mg/kg and butorphanol (Meiji Seika Pharma Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan) 2.5 mg/kg were administered intraperitoneally to induce anesthesia according to a previously published protocol [58 (link)]. Rapid recovery from anesthesia was achieved by administration of atipamezole (0.75 mg/kg), an antagonist of Medetomidine (Nippon Zenyaku Kogyo Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan). Prior to euthanasia, the animals were deeply anesthetized using sodium pentobarbital (Kyoritsu Seiyaku Corporation, Tokyo, Japan) 75 mg/kg, administered intraperitoneally.