Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi! So Science Fair Season is starting and I have already gotten my idea and I've done a lot of my research already. I do have one question. for my project I require sample estrogen pills and I am not sure how to obtain them. I don't want to buy a whole bottle because its expensive and its a waste of money because i only require enough for about 3 trials. Do you know of any resources I can get them from?

You cannot get a prescription drug without a prescription. How are you planning to use the 'estrogen pills'? Experiments with controlled substances have to be done under supervision in a school lab. Please tell us about your project and we will try to guide you.

Sybee

My science fair project has to do with testing the effects of estrogen on knee ligament laxity, I was planning to harvest bovine ligaments and maybe dissolve the estrogen tablets in distilled water and place the ligaments in that solution. I'm still doing more research on that aspect of my project.

That sounds like an ambitious and interesting project! What is your hypothesis? How do you measure ‘laxity’ in a ligament?

I checked Sigma-Aldrich chemical company as a source for estrogen and you can get 1 gram for a reasonable price. Your school will have to order it and they can request an educational discount which should reduce the price even more. http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/catalog/sea ... &region=US

Will you have access to a high school or university lab? It would be very helpful in a biomedical project like this.

Good luck,

Sybee

Yes, I will have access to a lab. Thank you so much! As far as the hypothesis is concerned, I am still not sure, because I still need to research just how much of an impact estrogen has on ligament laxity. I'm just figuring out the technical aspects of my project so determine if this project can actually be done. To test ligament laxity, i need to do a ligament stretch test using weights, but I still need to determine the ultimate tensile strength of bovine ligaments before I decide on how much of weight to use. (Once again, still researching so this method maybe altered in the future.)

Two last Questions:

1) Do you know of any resources I can get dissection guides? (I found some online, but they weren't specific to bovine stifle joints, I will have supervision.)

2) To obtain the stifle joints, would I have to request them from the local abattoir or is there another online resource I can get them from?

Wow! It sounds like you really are on top of this project. I am glad you will be able to work in a lab with supervision. You can learn a lot that way.

This is an area I know almost nothing about so I am hoping some other experts will chime in with more experience. As you said you have a lot of technical details to work out before you can even begin to do the experiments.

For a study on endothelial cells I was doing some years ago, I had to collect bovine aortas from the slaughterhouse and, at least for my experiments, the timing was very important. I had to be there with ice buckets, sterile saline and some dissecting tools and hemostats. As soon as they carcass was opened up they would cut off the aorta and give it to me. I would wash it, clamp it and put it on ice. As soon as I had 4 or 5 aortas I would race back to the lab and immediately process them. I’m telling you this so that you know how important it is to have everything prepared ahead of time before you schedule the visit to the slaughterhouse.

You will have to talk to the abattoir owner and get permission, of course, but they are always happy to help student researchers and will work with you to give you what you need in a timely fashion.

I had to look up ‘stifle joint’ since my experience with bovine anatomy is limited to the meat section of the grocery store. It is the knee joint and a good choice as a model for humans since the knee is a frequently injured joint. I found a youtube video showing a dissection tutorial on the stifle joint but don’t know how much help it will be:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qcmXs1re4c

If you could find a professor or grad student who has done the kind of ‘laxity’ experiment that you plan and ask them for a protocol, it would be a great help. Have you searched PubMed for papers on this topic? There must be a published technique for this somewhere. Don’t hesitate to call people who are doing joint research and ask them for help. If they are too busy, they will say so, but many are willing to help a high school student with advice and suggestions.

Good luck!

Sybee

Thank you so much for all of your help!! If I have any more questions, I'll be sure to post them on here.