Challenges Facing Quantification of Rat Locomotion along Beams of Varying Widths

Abstract

Optoelectronic motion capture systems have been widely used to investigate temporal gait parameters in humans and animals in order to understand function and behavioural attributes of different pathologies, e.g. Parkinson's disease (PD). The aim of the present paper was to investigate the practicality of utilising this system to investigate the effects of a unilateral 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) lesion on rat locomotion while walking on beams of varying widths (graduated, narrow, and wide). Temporal gait parameters of ten male Lister Hooded rats (five controls and five hemiparkinsonian) were observed using passive markers placed in locations that were representative of their four limbs and their body axis. The results demonstrate that marker-based motion capture can provide an effective and simple approach to quantifying temporal gait parameters for rat models of PD. They also reveal how the width of the path affects the locomotion in both experimental cohorts. Such measurements can be compared with human motion analysis to explore correlations between the animal model and human behaviour, which is an important step for translational medicine.

Three-dimensional rodent motion analysis and neurodegenerative disorders

“…Motion is described in terms of its kinematic characteristics, such as position, velocity and acceleration (linear or angular for each joint) and in terms of its kinetic characteristics, such as joint torques and joint reaction forces. Recently, there have been a number of attempts to implement instrumented motion analysis with rats or mice (Johnson et al, 2012; Madete et al, 2011, 2010) to study pathologies, such as PD or spinal cord injury, because mouse models have the advantage over other animal models of easier identification and experimentation on the genetic mechanisms that affect behavior. However, no group provided a clear description of the mathematical model approach used for the purposes of replication.…”

“…Furthermore, while previous approaches for the same purpose treated the body of the rodent as one rigid segment (Madete et al, 2011, 2010), after careful observation of the motion of the rodent’s body and knowledge of the human postural responses to perturbation to maintain balance, especially with PD as the underlying pathology (O’Sullivan, 2001), we considered the body as two different body-segments, the rear body-segment and the front body-segment. Furthermore, nowhere in the literature, to the best of our knowledge, the motion of the head of the rodent, or mouse or rat, and irrespective of the objective studied, has been tracked or reported as a 3D body-segment.…”

“…Madete et al (2010) also utilized an OMCS to investigate movement dysfunction during gait on different types of beams, of rats with a unilateral 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) lesion, a common model for PD. The conclusion was that marker-based motion capture could provide a novel approach to quantifying temporal-spatial gait parameters for rat models of PD (Madete et al, 2010).…”

“…Madete et al (2010) also utilized an OMCS to investigate movement dysfunction during gait on different types of beams, of rats with a unilateral 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) lesion, a common model for PD. The conclusion was that marker-based motion capture could provide a novel approach to quantifying temporal-spatial gait parameters for rat models of PD (Madete et al, 2010). This group also followed up with another manuscript, in which they used the same marker protocol to investigate the postural adaptations of the body of the rats as a function of dopamine depletion (Madete et al, 2011).…”

3D Kinematic Gait Analysis for Preclinical Studies in Rodents

“…These systems have been successful and proven to be effective in capturing deficits in locomotion in healthy human adults as well as altered kinematics of walking 6,7 . In rodents, currently available 3D kinematic motion systems adopt complex algorithms and modeling for the movement behavior and utilize sophisticated data analysis techniques 8,9,10,11 , which eventually limit their versatility. Moreover, the methods used for collecting data with most 3D motion capture systems are not adequately explained in the literature.…”