Dissecting femurs and tibias.

Video legend
Expose and peel off the skin of legs using scissors. When dissecting out the femurs from mice, make sure to cut as much as possible at the end where femur and hip joints are attached, to preserve the intactness of femurs. After the femurs and tibias are dissected out from mice, excessive muscles are removed from the leg of mice using scissors (not shown in video). The femur and tibias was then separated using a gentle twisting motion. To further clear off the muscles from femurs, Kimwipes are used to scratch off the muscles, any residual muscle that is not easily detached using Kimwipes can be cut off using scissors. To clear off muscles from tibias, hold the tibias bottom up, the toe facing upward, with the back of foot facing toward the operator. Gently cut using scissors at the wrist area to expose the skin, then the skin and muscles can all be peeled off by pulling the toe downward and simultaneously pushing the tibias bone upward (see video for detailed techniques). (Study approval. All animal experiments were performed under the approval of Weill Cornell Medicine Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, New York, NY. All experimental procedures followed the IACUC guidelines. This video was made at Weill Cornell Medical College according to the guidelines of the IACUC of Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, New York, USA under protocol # 2009-0061.)

Extracted from protocol
Generation of BMEC Lines and in vitro BMEC-HSPC Co-culture Assays
Guo, P. and Rafii, S. (2018). Bio-protocol 8(21): e3079.
DOI: 10.21769/BioProtoc.3079.