Burrowing: A sensitive behavioural assay, tested in five species of laboratory rodents
Burrowing: A sensitive behavioural assay, tested in five species of laboratory rodents
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DOI：
10.1016/j.bbr.2009.01.007
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发表时间：
2009-06-08
影响因子：
2.7
通讯作者：
Deacon, R. M. J.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Deacon, R. M. J.
在挖洞试验中，小鼠或大鼠自发地将装满食物颗粒、砾石或其他物质的管子排空。该测试操作极其简单，设备价格低廉且易于构建。它利用啮齿类动物的自然行为，在受控的实验室条件下提供定量数据，并已证明对小鼠（小家鼠）的朊病毒疾病、大鼠（褐家鼠）的细胞因子、小鼠和大鼠的脂多糖、小鼠的品系差异和脑损伤极其敏感。然而，它尚未在其他不太常见的实验室物种中使用，并且可能，例如，在检测仓鼠（auratus Mesocricetus）中有用，仓鼠是朊病毒疾病研究中常用的物种。因此，本研究系统地研究了五种啮齿类动物的挖洞行为，使用五种不同的挖洞基质。它还询问了老鼠是否在啮齿类动物中是独一无二的，它们很少挖食物颗粒的洞，但却大力挖砾石和其他类土基质的洞。结果表明，除埃及刺鼠（Acomys cahirinus，在野外不挖洞）外，所有物种（大鼠、小鼠、仓鼠和沙鼠）都能很好地在类土基质上挖洞。然而，实验室小鼠是唯一一种在没有事先接触其他基质的情况下大力挖掘食物颗粒的物种。这些结果表明，在适当的基质下，挖洞可以作为许多啮齿动物物种的简单行为测试。它是一种优秀的神经行为毒性检测器，在许多研究领域都有应用，特别是当需要长期行为监测时，例如跟踪慢性疾病模型的变化。(C) 2009 Elsevier B.V.版权所有
In the burrowing test, mice or rats spontaneously empty a tube filled with food pellets, gravel or other substances. The test is extremely simple to perform, the apparatus is inexpensive and readily constructed. it exploits a natural rodent behaviour, provides quantitative data under controlled laboratory conditions, and has proved extremely sensitive to prion disease in mice (Mus musculus), cytokines in rats (Rattus norvegicus), lipopolysaccharide in mice and rats, strain differences and brain lesions in mice. However, it has not been used in other, less common, laboratory species, and might, e.g. be useful in detecting scrapie infection in hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus), a commonly used species in prion disease research. Therefore, the present study systematically investigated burrowing behaviour in five rodent species, using five different burrowing substrates. It also enquired whether rats are unique among rodents in showing little burrowing of food pellets, yet burrow gravel and other earth-like substrates vigorously. The results showed that all the species (rats, mice, hamsters and gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus)), except one (Egyptian spiny mice, Acomys cahirinus, which does not dig burrows in the wild) burrowed earth-like substrates well. However, laboratory mice were the only species that burrowed food pellets vigorously, without prior exposure to other substrates. These results show that burrowing, with an appropriate substrate, can be used as a simple behavioural test in many rodent species. It is an excellent detector of neurobehavioural toxicity with applications in many areas of research, especially when long-term behavioural monitoring is required, e.g. to track changes in chronic disease models. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.