A Within-Animal Comparison of Skilled Forelimb Assessments in Rats
A Within-Animal Comparison of Skilled Forelimb Assessments in Rats
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DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0141254
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发表时间：
2015-10-27
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Hays, Seth A.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Sloan, Andrew M.;Fink, Melyssa K.;Hays, Seth A.
在啮齿类动物模型中，已经开发了各种熟练的到达任务来评估前肢功能。单颗粒熟练到达任务和面食基质任务为神经损伤和疾病模型的前肢功能恢复提供了有价值的见解。近年来，为了降低啮齿类动物前肢评估的成本和时间负担，开发了几种自动化方法。在这里，我们提供了三种常见的前肢评估的主题内比较，以便直接评估跨任务的敏感性和效率。训练大鼠完成单粒熟练到达任务、面食基质任务和等距拉扯任务。一旦熟练完成所有三项任务，大鼠接受运动皮层和纹状体的缺血损伤，以损害训练肢体的使用。在损伤后的第二周，所有三项任务都测量了前肢功能的显著缺陷。表现在不同的任务之间有很好的相关性。到损伤后的第六周，只有等长拉力任务测量到前肢功能的显著缺陷，这表明该任务对慢性损伤更敏感。对于等距拉扯任务，达到渐近性能所需的训练天数更长，但收集和分析数据所需的总实验时间大大减少。这些发现表明，等长拉力任务是一种有效、敏感的前肢功能测量方法，有助于神经损伤和疾病模型的临床前评估。
A variety of skilled reaching tasks have been developed to evaluate forelimb function in rodent models. The single pellet skilled reaching task and pasta matrix task have provided valuable insight into recovery of forelimb function in models of neurological injury and disease. Recently, several automated measures have been developed to reduce the cost and time burden of forelimb assessment in rodents. Here, we provide a within-subject comparison of three common forelimb assessments to allow direct evaluation of sensitivity and efficiency across tasks. Rats were trained to perform the single pellet skilled reaching task, the pasta matrix task, and the isometric pull task. Once proficient on all three tasks, rats received an ischemic lesion of motor cortex and striatum to impair use of the trained limb. On the second week post-lesion, all three tasks measured a significant deficit in forelimb function. Performance was well-correlated across tasks. By the sixth week post-lesion, only the isometric pull task measured a significant deficit in forelimb function, suggesting that this task is more sensitive to chronic impairments. The number of training days required to reach asymptotic performance was longer for the isometric pull task, but the total experimenter time required to collect and analyze data was substantially lower. These findings suggest that the isometric pull task represents an efficient, sensitive measure of forelimb function to facilitate preclinical evaluation in models of neurological injury and disease.