Abstract
Simple SummaryFor research purposes, mice are often transported between institutions, which may elicit stress, thereby influencing results. We determined adrenocortical activity by measuring fecal corticosterone metabolites (FCMs), as a stress marker, in prepuberal mice from five genetic backgrounds, namely C57BL/6J, C57BL/6NCrl, FVB/NCrl, Crl:CD1(ICR), and BALB/cAnCrl. Only C57BL/6N showed significantly higher FCM levels the day after transport, but baseline levels were attained within four days.Specific experimental protocols necessitate transportation, a potentially stressful event that could confound results. We determined adrenocortical activity by measuring fecal corticosterone metabolites (FCMs), as a stress marker, in prepuberal (three-week old) female C57BL/6J, C57BL/6NCrl, FVB/NCrl, Crl:CD1(ICR), and BALB/cAnCrl mice. On each transport day, five female cage mates per genetic background were weaned and transported in stable groups via truck from the breeding to the research facility. Fecal pellets were collected on Days 0, 1, and 4. Mice were superovulated for embryo production to determine if repeated fecal collection impacts this procedure. The average duration of transportation over 600 km and from packing to unpacking of mice was 7.24 and 22.62 h, respectively. FCM levels increased from Day 0 to Day 1 and decreased on Day 4 in all genetic backgrounds except in FVB/NCrl, but only B6N showed significantly higher FCM levels on Day 1. Furthermore, embryo production was not affected by repeated feces collection. The results show that weaning and immediate transport of prepuberal mice from the breeding to the research facility led to temporal and genetic background-dependent increases of adrenocortical activity in four of the five genetic backgrounds investigated, which returned to baseline levels within four days.
Highlights
Concomitant with the high demand for genetically engineered mice for biomedical research, transportation of mice or their genetic material in the form of oocytes, embryos, or spermatozoa is indispensable
To evaluate stress in animals, a number of parameters can be used. One of these is the measurement of fecal corticosterone metabolites (FCMs) since corticosterone is the major glucocorticoid in mice and its metabolites are excreted primarily via feces [2,3]
The present results show that transportation of prepuberal mice from the breeding to the research facility led to increased FCM levels on Day 1 in four out of five genetic backgrounds, and baseline levels were attained within four days
Summary
Concomitant with the high demand for genetically engineered mice for biomedical research, transportation of mice or their genetic material in the form of oocytes, embryos, or spermatozoa is indispensable. Since the degree and time of disturbance of homeostasis after transportation of prepuberal mice is unknown, we non-invasively determined induced stress to the animals by measuring adrenocortical activity over a five-day period in mice of five different genetic backgrounds that were transported from the breeding to the research facility. On each day of transport, five female cage mates from each genetic background were weaned together and kept in stable groups throughout the study. At both facilities, mice were kept under standard husbandry conditions according to the Directive 2010/63/EU and were free from the Federation of European Laboratory Animal Science Associations (FELASA)-listed infectious agents
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