Application Of Near – Infrared Light For The Implementation Of Vein Finder Assisting Mice Injection Process

Abstract

Nowadays, researchers simulate human genetic diseases in mice to learn more about how they develop and test potential new treatments or new drugs. Procedures such as blood collection or anesthesia are required for the conduct of the above studies and these procedures are performed preferentially in the tail vein of mice. However, the diameter of the tail vein of the mice is extremely small, only about 300 micrometers, so finding mice tail vein is one of the greatest challenges faced by researchers today. In order to ensure a safe, quick, and precise venipuncture operation, a vein visualize instrument that can show the veins clearly and non-invasively is required. In this research, a device is designed to provide a real-time projection of veins in mice tail images. The Near-infrared (NIR) technique is applied to take the tail vein images of the mice and then project them in real-time on the mice tails. This device includes a NIR laser diode with 808nm wavelength, a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+, and an infrared (IR) filter removed Microscope Camera which is utilized for image acquisition and processing. Moreover, before being projected back into the mice tail, the captured images are transferred to the Raspberry to filter and process. Mouse tail vein images were projected at 320x240 pixels resolution and grayscale. With the aid of the Python programming language and the OpenCV open source library, the entire image processing process was programmed. 6 mice were divided into 2 groups according to age. The results were shown correctly, and in real-time displacement, the veins seemed to be rather clearly. Additionally, the cost of the entire system was significantly cheaper than that of several commercial devices. Despite a few flaws, the device was welldesigned and reasonably priced. With more development, it could have even better characteristics and become a product utilized in labs to facilitate the venipuncture of mice at Vietnam laboratories.