A technique for chronic intermittent bile collection from the rat

A technique is described for inserting into the bile duct, a re-entrant cannula with a sampling arm to allow intermittent collections of bile from unanaesthetised, minimally restrained rats, for a period of 30 days or more. The flow rate of bile (5.38+/-0-25 cm3/h/kg) was higher than that previously reported when using simple or re-entrant cannulas. This higher flow rate may be a result of allowing a minimum of 10 days post-operative recovery period before starting collection of bile and of avoiding anaesthesia and other stresses at the time of collection.