Jun 02, 2026
Spleen collection from mice and determination of spleen index
- Amandine Even1,2,3,4,5,
- Louis-Eric Trudeau1,2,3,5,4,6
- 1Department of pharmacology and physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Université de Montréal;
- 2Neural Signaling and Circuitry research group (SNC);
- 3Center for Interdisciplinary Research on the Brain and Learning (CIRCA);
- 4Institut Courtois d’innovation biomédicale;
- 5Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP) Collaborative Research Network, Chevy Chase, MD, 20815;
- 6Department of Neuroscience, Faculty of Medicine, Université de Montréal
Protocol Citation: Amandine Even, Louis-Eric Trudeau 2026. Spleen collection from mice and determination of spleen index. protocols.io https://dx.doi.org/10.17504/protocols.io.261geybkyv47/v1
License: This is an open access protocol distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
Protocol status: Working
We use this protocol and it's working
Created: April 22, 2026
Last Modified: June 02, 2026
Protocol Integer ID: 315478
Keywords: spleen collection from mice, determination of spleen index, collection of spleen, spleen index, calculation of the spleen index, spleen collection, spleen, mice
Funders Acknowledgements:
Aligning Science Across Parkinson's
Grant ID: ASAP-000525
Abstract
This protocol describes the collection of spleen from mice and the calculation of the spleen index.
Materials
Solutions:
- Cold PBS 1X
- Cold 4% PFA or cold formol
Materials:
- scissors and forceps
- precision scale for weighing the spleen
- normal scale for weighing animals
Tissue collection
The mouse is weighed, which is necessary for calculating the spleen index.
After an appropriate euthanasia, the spleen is extracted from the mouse with forceps and scissors.
If perfusion has to be done on the mouse, the spleen is harvested after the anethesia of the animal and before the trans-cardic perfusion.
Be careful to harvest only the spleen which is dark and not yellow fat or white conjonctive tissues.
Measurement of the spleen index
The spleen is weighed with a precision scale.
The spleen index is calculated as the spleen mass (mg)/mouse body mass (g).
If further analyses such as flow cytometry has do be performed, the spleen is quickly transfered to a tube containing cold 1X PBS solution for subsequent splenocyte isolation.