We examined the effects of handling, cage transportation, anaesthesia and repeated bleeding on plasma glucose levels in mice and rats. Plasma glucose was determined using a compact glucose analyser Antsense, which provides a quick and accurate method without the necessity for special specimen preparation. In mice, plasma glucose was significantly elevated after primary handling or cage transportation. Anaesthesia increased plasma glucose levels two-fold, whilst repeated bleeding induced a rapid but transient increase. However, it was found to be possible to sample plasma glucose levels at one-hour intervals without any apparent effect on plasma glucose level as a result of stress from the sampling procedure. In contrast, the same set of procedures i.e. handling, cage transportation and anaesthesia, when performed on rats, seemed to have small or no observable effect on levels of plasma glucose. These results show the importance of the sampling procedure when determining plasma glucose in mice. It is recommended that the procedure which causes the least influence on endogenous glucose levels should be the method of choice and that animals should be acclimatized to the procedure, by appropriate handling, prior to sampling.
ABSTRACT. The rectal temperature obtained using a standard electronic thermometer was compared with ear, back skin, tail skin, and sole skin temperatures obtained using an infrared thermometer in B6C3F1 mice. Using both methods, we investigated baseline temperatu res, diurnal and 2-week variations in temperatures, and ethanol-induced hypothermia in these body locations. Ear and back temperatures were shown to be close to and consistent with rectal temperatures in various situations, and measured temperatures at these sites were almost constant, with very similar diurnal variation. Conversely, tail and sole temperatures were lower and much more variable. These results indicate that ear and back skin temperatures obtained using a convenient and non-invasive infrared thermometer are as reliable, and should be safer and less stressful to animal subjects, compared to standard rectal temperature measurements. KEY WORDS: body temperature, infrared thermometry, mouse.J. Vet. Med. Sci. 65(12): 1365-1367, 2003 The body temperatures of laboratory mice are commonly measured with rectal thermometers. This method may be an uncomfortable and stressful procedure [1], and repeated insertion of rectal temperature probes can cause mucosal tears, leading to septicemia and death [2]. The body temperature, however, still must be estimated during time-consuming toxicological studies, and a less intrusive method would be preferable. Recently, in human medicine, small instruments, of the noninvasive type, became available for easily and rapidly measuring the body temperature via the infrared radiation from the tympanic membrane [6]. The infrared tympanic thermometer was developed primarily to measure core body temperature in the ear canal, but it has also proved useful for measuring skin temperature [5,9]. This paper describes the usefulness of using an infrared thermometer for measurement of ear and back skin temperatures and compares the temperatures of the rectum, ear (tympanic membrane and external auditory meatus), back skin and other parts of the body in mice.The experiments were performed using 7-week-old conscious B6C3F1 mice weighing 20-22 g (male) and 17-19 g (female) from Charles River Japan, Inc. The animal room was air-conditioned at 23 ± 2°C, a relative humidity of 45% to 65%, and with a 13 hr fluorescent lighting period (08:00-21:00). Mice were housed 3 per cage in a suspended cages (width: 25 cm, depth: 42 cm, height: 22 cm) with a stainlesssteel front grating and mesh floor, and aluminum covers on both sides and the back with food and water provided ad lib, and were acclimated to these conditions for seven days prior to the experiment. After mid-dorsal fur areas (2 cm in diameter) of the animals were shaved by electric clippers, the animals were acclimated to handling, in the same manner as for body temperature measurement, twice a day for at least three days prior to experiment. Measurement sites were shaved in the same manner once a week.An electric thermometer (Termo-Finer ® CTM-303; Termo Corporation; Tokyo) was use...
This study was conducted to examine any changes caused by feed restriction in dogs to contribute to safety evaluation in toxicity studies. Two male 7-month-old beagle dogs/group were fed 300 (control), 150 (50% of control), or 70 g/animal of diet daily (23% of control) for 4 weeks. Effects of feed restriction, except for clinical signs, were noted depending on the feed dosage in almost all examinations. The principal outcomes were: decreased body weight and water consumption, ECG changes (decreased heart rate and prolonged QTc), and hematopoietic and lymphopoietic suppression (decreased reticulocyte ratio or white blood cell count in hematology, decreased nucleated cell count in bone marrow, decreased erythroid parameters in myelography, and hypocellularity of bone marrow and thymic atrophy in histopathology). In addition, some changes were noted in urinalysis (decreased urine volume and sodium and potassium excretion), blood chemistry (decreased ALP and inorganic phosphorus and increased creatinine), organ weights, and gastric histopathology. These results provide important reference data for distinguishing the primary effects of test compounds from secondary effects of decreased food consumption in toxicity studies in beagle dogs.
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