A refinement to the formalin test in mice.
A refinement to the formalin test in mice.
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DOI：
10.12688/f1000research.18338.1
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发表时间：
2019-01-01
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
McMahon, Stephen B
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Lopes, Douglas M;Cater, Heather L;McMahon, Stephen B
不断改进动物研究中使用的测试对科学界至关重要。疼痛研究领域尤其如此，因为那里的伦理标准非常敏感。福尔马林试验广泛用于疼痛研究，其某些机制类似于人类临床疼痛的潜在机制。注射后，福尔马林立即触发两波（早期和晚期）强烈的伤害性行为，其特征在于舔、咬、抬起和摇晃动物的注射爪。尽管在行为水平上得到了很好的表征，但自四十多年前提出以来，福尔马林试验没有任何显著的改进，特别是那些将动物痛苦最小化和保持试验行为结果相结合的试验。在这里，我们提出了一个修改和改进的福尔马林试验方法。我们表明，在注射时用吸入麻醉剂七氟烷麻醉动物可以产生可靠、稳健和可重现的结果，同时减少初始阶段的动物痛苦。重要的是，我们的结果得到了验证的药理学抑制的行为在后期阶段的测试与加巴喷丁，麻醉剂显示没有干扰药物。此外，我们证明，这也是一个有用的方法来筛选的变化，在疼痛的行为在福尔马林的转基因株系。
The constant refinement of tests used in animal research is crucial for the scientific community. This is particularly true for the field of pain research, where ethical standards are notably sensitive. The formalin test is widely used in pain research and some of its mechanisms resemble those underlying clinical pain in humans. Immediately upon injection, formalin triggers two waves (an early and a late phase) of strong, nociceptive behaviour, characterised by licking, biting, lifting and shaking the injected paw of the animal. Although well characterised at the behaviour level, since its proposal over four decades ago, there has not been any significant refinement to the formalin test, especially those combining minimisation of animal distress and preservation of behavioural outcomes of the test. Here, we propose a modified and improved method for the formalin test. We show that anaesthetising the animal with the inhalable anaesthetic sevoflurane at the time of the injection can produce reliable, robust and reproducible results whilst animal distress during the initial phase is reduced. Importantly, our results were validated by pharmacological suppression of the behaviour during the late phase of the test with gabapentin, the anaesthetic showing no interference with the drug. In addition, we demonstrate that this is also a useful method to screen for changes in pain behaviour in response to formalin in transgenic lines.