# Mortar and pestle for grinding mouse DRG in liquid nitrogen?
**URL:** https://forum.painresearcher.net/t/mortar-and-pestle-for-grinding-mouse-drg-in-liquid-nitrogen/419
**Category:** Reagents and Equipment
**Created:** [March 23, 2018, 1:27pm UTC](https://forum.painresearcher.net/t/mortar-and-pestle-for-grinding-mouse-drg-in-liquid-nitrogen/419 "2018-03-23T13:27:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@achamess](https://forum.painresearcher.net/u/achamess)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2018, 1:27pm UTC](https://forum.painresearcher.net/t/mortar-and-pestle-for-grinding-mouse-drg-in-liquid-nitrogen/419/1 "2018-03-23T13:27:33Z")
Does anyone have recommendations for a small mortar pestle that is sufficient for liquid nitrogen grinding of mouse DRG? There are plenty of mortar and pestles but they’re large, probably too large for a few DRG. Anyone do this?
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### Author:  [@runDRG](https://forum.painresearcher.net/u/runDRG)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2018, 9:10pm UTC](https://forum.painresearcher.net/t/mortar-and-pestle-for-grinding-mouse-drg-in-liquid-nitrogen/419/2 "2018-03-26T21:10:20Z")
We use a homogenizer with plastic pestles–it works great for small tissue stored in eppendorf tubes.
[https://www.fishersci.com/shop/products/kontes-pellet-pestle-cordless-motor-1/k7495400000#?keyword=Pellet+pestle+mixer](https://www.fishersci.com/shop/products/kontes-pellet-pestle-cordless-motor-1/k7495400000#?keyword=Pellet+pestle+mixer)
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### Author:  [@achamess](https://forum.painresearcher.net/u/achamess)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2018, 4:15pm UTC](https://forum.painresearcher.net/t/mortar-and-pestle-for-grinding-mouse-drg-in-liquid-nitrogen/419/3 "2018-03-28T16:15:29Z")
Do you use with liquid nitrogen? We have this. I didn’t think it’d work for my purpose.
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### Author:  [@runDRG](https://forum.painresearcher.net/u/runDRG)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2018, 6:20pm UTC](https://forum.painresearcher.net/t/mortar-and-pestle-for-grinding-mouse-drg-in-liquid-nitrogen/419/4 "2018-03-28T18:20:59Z")
Not sure what exactly you mean. We don’t have liquid nitrogen in the tubes, but we flash freeze in liquid nitrogen, store at -80, and then use the homogenizer with the Qiagen RNAeasy kit for RNA isolation. I think it should be fine for standard trizol protocols as well
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### Author:  [@achamess](https://forum.painresearcher.net/u/achamess)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2018, 6:23pm UTC](https://forum.painresearcher.net/t/mortar-and-pestle-for-grinding-mouse-drg-in-liquid-nitrogen/419/5 "2018-03-28T18:23:01Z")
Hey. OK. Yeah, no I’m not trying to extract RNA. For certain applications, people will flash freeze tissue and then grind the tissue while it’s still frozen solid (in liquid nitrogen) to get a fine powder.
Like this:
DRGs are so tiny, I’m worried if i used a standard sized mortar pestle, it’s spread all over and I’d recover very little.
@tberta - have you done this?
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### Author:  [@runDRG](https://forum.painresearcher.net/u/runDRG)
#### Post date: [March 28, 2018, 6:37pm UTC](https://forum.painresearcher.net/t/mortar-and-pestle-for-grinding-mouse-drg-in-liquid-nitrogen/419/6 "2018-03-28T18:37:59Z")
Ah, okay. I don’t have experience with that, but you may be able to use a glass tube mortar and pestle, like this one: [https://www.supplymylab.com/Supplies/Mortar-and-Pestles/\_/64AD585F-1B65-4162-9023-BBA71281498E?q=099C%20S65&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9Yz8zdSP2gIVVsDICh3vzgYiEAQYBSABEgLiEvD\_BwE](https://www.supplymylab.com/Supplies/Mortar-and-Pestles/_/64AD585F-1B65-4162-9023-BBA71281498E?q=099C%20S65&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9Yz8zdSP2gIVVsDICh3vzgYiEAQYBSABEgLiEvD_BwE)
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### Author:  [@tberta](https://forum.painresearcher.net/u/tberta)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2018, 3:07pm UTC](https://forum.painresearcher.net/t/mortar-and-pestle-for-grinding-mouse-drg-in-liquid-nitrogen/419/7 "2018-04-04T15:07:04Z")
We use this technique for skin samples, but a simple Trizol and pestle approach works fine for DRG and spinal cord.
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### Author:  [@achamess](https://forum.painresearcher.net/u/achamess)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2018, 11:19pm UTC](https://forum.painresearcher.net/t/mortar-and-pestle-for-grinding-mouse-drg-in-liquid-nitrogen/419/8 "2018-04-09T23:19:18Z")
Thanks Temo. Yes, for just getting RNA out, mortar and pestle (glass), as you showed me, works well. But I want to do frozen with liquid nitrogen to do other things (nuclei extraction). We’ll see.