Housing mice in the individually ventilated or open cages—Does it matter for behavioral phenotype?

Johanna Åhlgren; Vootele Voikar

doi:10.1111/gbb.12564

Housing mice in the individually ventilated or open cages—Does it matter for behavioral phenotype?

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Sammanfattning

Individually ventilated caging (IVC) systems for rodents are increasingly common in laboratory animal facilities. However, the impact of such substantial change in housing conditions on animal physiology and behavior is still debated. Most importantly, there arise the questions regarding reproducibility and comparison of previous or new phenotypes between the IVC and open cages. The present study was set up for detailed and systematic comparison of behavioral phenotypes in male and female mice of three widely used inbred strains (C57BL/6JRccHsd, DBA/2JRccHsd, 129S2/SvHSd) after being kept in two housing environments (IVC and open cages) for 6?weeks (since 4?weeks of age) before behavioral testing. The tests addressed exploratory, anxiety-like and stress-related behavior (light-dark box, open field, forced swim test, stress-induced hyperthermia), social approach and species-specific behavior (nest building, marble burying). In all tests, large and expected strain differences were found. Somewhat surprisingly, the most striking effect of environment was found for basal body temperature and weight loss after one night of single housing in respective cages. In addition, the performance in light-dark box and open field was affected by environment. Several parameters in different tests showed significant interaction between housing and genetic background. In summary, the IVC housing did not invalidate the well-known differences between the mouse strains which have been established by previous studies. However, within the strains the results can be influenced by sex and housing system depending on the behavioral tasks applied. The bottom-line is that the environmental conditions should be described explicitly in all publications.

Originalspråk	engelska
Tidskrift	Genes, Brain and Behavior
Volym	0
Utgåva	0
Sidor (från-till)	e12564
ISSN	1601-1848
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1111/gbb.12564
Status	Publicerad - 7 mar 2019
MoE-publikationstyp	A1 Tidskriftsartikel-refererad

Citera det här

Åhlgren, J., & Voikar, V. (2019). Housing mice in the individually ventilated or open cages—Does it matter for behavioral phenotype? Genes, Brain and Behavior, 0(0), e12564. https://doi.org/10.1111/gbb.12564

Åhlgren, Johanna ; Voikar, Vootele. / Housing mice in the individually ventilated or open cages—Does it matter for behavioral phenotype?. I: Genes, Brain and Behavior. 2019 ; Vol. 0, Nr. 0. s. e12564.

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title = "Housing mice in the individually ventilated or open cages—Does it matter for behavioral phenotype?",

abstract = "Individually ventilated caging (IVC) systems for rodents are increasingly common in laboratory animal facilities. However, the impact of such substantial change in housing conditions on animal physiology and behavior is still debated. Most importantly, there arise the questions regarding reproducibility and comparison of previous or new phenotypes between the IVC and open cages. The present study was set up for detailed and systematic comparison of behavioral phenotypes in male and female mice of three widely used inbred strains (C57BL/6JRccHsd, DBA/2JRccHsd, 129S2/SvHSd) after being kept in two housing environments (IVC and open cages) for 6?weeks (since 4?weeks of age) before behavioral testing. The tests addressed exploratory, anxiety-like and stress-related behavior (light-dark box, open field, forced swim test, stress-induced hyperthermia), social approach and species-specific behavior (nest building, marble burying). In all tests, large and expected strain differences were found. Somewhat surprisingly, the most striking effect of environment was found for basal body temperature and weight loss after one night of single housing in respective cages. In addition, the performance in light-dark box and open field was affected by environment. Several parameters in different tests showed significant interaction between housing and genetic background. In summary, the IVC housing did not invalidate the well-known differences between the mouse strains which have been established by previous studies. However, within the strains the results can be influenced by sex and housing system depending on the behavioral tasks applied. The bottom-line is that the environmental conditions should be described explicitly in all publications.",

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year = "2019",

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language = "English",

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journal = "Genes, Brain and Behavior",

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Åhlgren, J & Voikar, V 2019, 'Housing mice in the individually ventilated or open cages—Does it matter for behavioral phenotype?', Genes, Brain and Behavior, vol. 0, nr. 0, s. e12564. https://doi.org/10.1111/gbb.12564