Summary: Lovering et al. (2007)

Lovering et al. (2007) investigated whether tail snips collected from young mice (less than 4 weeks of age) could be used for immunofluroescence assays of muscle proteins. They found that skeletal muscle fibres present in the distal end of the tail (1 cm) of neonatal mice can be used in this procedure to determine the presence of three different muscle proteins, namely desmin null, dysferlin null and dystrophin null. Lovering et al. (2007) suggest that the use of immunofluroescence assays can allow for phenotypic confirmation of genetic screening of mutant mouse strains, allowing for scientists to evaluate muscle from mice expressing genotypes of particular interest.