Comparing distress of mouse models for liver damage

Abstract

In order to foster animal welfare as well as high quality of research, many countries regulate by law that the severity of animal experiments must be evaluated and considered when performing biomedical research. It is well accepted that multiple parameters rather than a single readout parameter should be applied to describe animal distress or suffering. However, since the performance of readout parameters for animal distress is rarely defined and methods for multivariate analysis have only in rare cases been used, it is not known which methodology is most appropriate to define animal distress. This study used receiver operating characteristic curve analysis to quantify the performance of burrowing activity, body weight change and a distress score of mice after induction of liver damage by bile duct ligation or carbon tetrachloride. In addition, Support Vector Machine classification was used to compare the distress of these mouse models. This approach demonstrated that bile duct ligation causes much more distress than carbon tetrachloride-induced liver damage. This study, therefore, provides a prototype how to compare two animal models by considering several readout parameters. In the future these or similar methods for multivariate analysis will be necessary, when assessing and comparing the severity of animal models.

Distress Analysis of Mice with Cervical Arteriovenous Fistulas

“…Therefore, the early phase and the late experimental phase were chosen as time points to assess the distress using additional parameters. As seen in other studies on distress and weight change [ 23 ], when mice suffered severe distress, the body weight of the experimental animals started to decrease progressively. Although the surgery itself had an impact on the welfare of the mice, the noticeable increase in body weight at the late phase indicated that the mice were in good condition, and that the AVF itself did not cause severe distress to the animals.…”

“…Continuous observation of body weight revealed that there was a weight loss in the early phase, which could be explained by surgery. Surgery and anesthesia are both particularly potent stressors [ 21 , 22 ], and thus post-surgical body weight reduction is common in mice [ 16 , 23 , 24 , 25 ]. However, as the experiment progressed, the mice recovered and gained stable weight over the next 3 weeks.…”

“…In addition, a distress score sheet was used to evaluate AVF-bearing mice. Our work group has used this distress score sheet several times to successfully analyse distress in experimental mice [ 16 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 27 ]. All mice showed low distress scores, no more than 2 out of 66 theoretically possible points.…”

Multimodal Imaging Techniques to Evaluate the Anticancer Effect of Cold Atmospheric Pressure Plasma

“…Water and standard laboratory chow were provided ad libitum. Mice were bred under specific germ-free conditions (except for the following pathogens detected within the last two years, i.e., Helicobacter sp., Rodentibacter pneumotropicus, murine Norovirus and rat Theilovirus) in individually ventilated cages and with environmental enrichment [20]. Mice were group-housed during breeding and for the experiments, different numbers of mice (N = 2-5) were housed in cages and different litters were used.…”

Development of behavioral patterns in young C57BL/6J mice: a home cage-based study

“…The parameters of interest have been selected based on consortium data, which were obtained in adult rodent disease models, and which supported an informative value for the purpose of severity assessment (e.g. 8 , 9 , 12 – 20 ). Information about model-specific characteristics provide key elements for an evidence-based grading of severity, and allow filling of gaps in model-specific refinement recommendations 8 .…”