Social structure features in three inbred strains of mice, C57B1/6J, Balb/cj, and NIH: a comparative study

Mondragón, Ricardo; Mayagoitia, Lílian; López-lujan, Alfredo; Díaz, José‐Luis

doi:10.1016/s0163-1047(87)90500-0

Cited by 68 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…In this study, huddling was strong even on the first day of grouping, when animals were relatively unfamiliar with each other, congruent with work indicating that C57BL/6 mice have strong tendencies to huddle with a novel animal compared to other strains, including BALB/cJ and FVB/NJ [47,52]. Huddling may function in thermoregulation [3,28].…”

Section: Specific Social Behaviorssupporting

confidence: 85%

“…In addition, we noted that huddling mice, particularly males in the mixed-sex groups, spent considerable time (between 10 and 20% of huddle time during the active period) in allogrooming. Allogrooming has been considered to be a component of eusocial behaviors [20,47,61], although allogrooming between adult males may include aggressive grooming, related to aggression [30]. As it was most notable here by males to females, a eusocial interpretation of allogrooming seems more likely, and in turn supports the concept that huddling has some eusocial components.…”

Section: Specific Social Behaviorssupporting

confidence: 56%

“…Thus, in resident-intruder tests, C57BL/6J mice were found to be more aggressive toward an intruder compared to DBA/2J strain [51] and to additional 7 inbred mouse strains [34]. Mondragon et al [47] found that following formation of group, C57BL/6J subordinates showed more submissive to dominants and less aggression to other subordinate males, compared to BALB/cJ strain. These findings suggest that C57BL/6J mice have welldeveloped capacities for both offensive aggression and for the establishment and maintenance of dominance relationships.…”

Section: Specific Social Behaviorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Colony formation of C57BL/6J mice in visible burrow system: Identification of eusocial behaviors in a background strain for genetic animal models of autism

Arakawa

Blanchard

2007

Behavioural Brain Research

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Deficits in social interaction are primary characteristics of autism, which has strong genetic components. Genetically-manipulated mouse models may provide a useful research tool to advance the investigation of genes associated with autism. To identify these genes using mouse models, behavioral assays for social relationships in the background strains must be developed. The present study examined colony formation in groups of one male and three female mice (Experiment 1) and, groups of three male mice (Experiment 2) of the C57BL/6J strain in a seminatural visible burrow system. For adult mixed-sex colonies, four-hour observations during both the dark and light cycles for 15 days demonstrated day-dependent increases in huddling together in the chamber accompanied by decreased frequencies of active social behaviors. Sequential analyses of social interactions indicated that approaches to the back of the approached animal typically elicited flight, while approaches to the front of the approached animal failed to do so. This was seen for female to female, and for female to male approaches, as well as male to female approaches, strongly counter indicating a view that rear approach/flight specifically reflects female responsivirity to unwanted male sexual approach. For adult male colonies, similar protocols found that these social behaviors were similar to those of adult mixed-sex colonies. These findings suggest two potentially useful measures of eusocial behavior in mice, of possible value for genetic mouse models of autism; that is, huddling together and approaches to the front but not the back, of conspecifics.

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Section: Specific Social Behaviorssupporting

confidence: 85%

Section: Specific Social Behaviorssupporting

confidence: 56%

Section: Specific Social Behaviorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Colony formation of C57BL/6J mice in visible burrow system: Identification of eusocial behaviors in a background strain for genetic animal models of autism

Arakawa

Blanchard

2007

Behavioural Brain Research

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“…Primates are highly social animals and isolation from conspecifics has negative consequences in terms of affective and stress responses [18,38]. In contrast, socially-housed male house mice form dominance hierarchies and territories [2,25] which may contribute to the reduced exploratory behavior. Also, strainspecific anxiety-like responses have been reported in rodents.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inhibition of neuronal nitric oxide reduces anxiety-like responses to pair housing

Workman¹,

Trainor²,

Finy³

et al. 2008

Behavioural Brain Research

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Many psychological disorders are characterized by anxiety and alterations in social interactions. Recent studies demonstrate that the chemical messenger nitric oxide (NO) can regulate both anxiety and social behaviours. We tested whether an enzyme that produces NO in the brain, neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS), serves as an interface between social interactions and anxiety-like behaviour. Several investigators have observed that mice increase anxiety-like responses in the elevated plusmaze after pair housing. nNOS gene deletion and 3-Bromo-7-Nitroindazole were used to inhibit the production of neuronal NO. Similar to previous studies, pair housing reduced open arm exploration in the elevated plus-maze. Pair housing also increased corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) immunoreactive cells in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus. Inhibition of NO production increased open arm exploration in pair-housed mice but decreased open arm exploration in individually-housed mice. These results suggest that the effect of nNOS inhibition on anxiety-like responses is context dependent and that behavioural responses to social housing are altered after nNOS inhibition. This research suggests that NO may play an important role in mediating the effect social interactions have on anxiety.

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“…However, there is a cost to social housing in aggressive animals such as male mice which fight to establish a social hierarchy (8,49,52,53). There is good evidence that the stress response produced by social stimuli is even greater than that produced by stressors such as foot-shock or food or water deprivation (34).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

There's no place like home: Cage odours and place preference in subordinate CD-1 male mice

Fitchett

Barnard

Cassaday

2006

Physiology & Behavior

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Prior studies using mice have shown that scent marks are an important source of information and can cause behavioural changes in other individuals. Studies have also shown that scent marks in the environment can affect the outcome of social interactions between mice. We used conditioned place preference tests to investigate whether CD-1 male mice (Mus musculus) are reinforced by olfactory cues from the home cage. Soiled bedding from the home cage was presented in the initially less preferred chamber of the apparatus to determine whether this association would reduce the unconditioned preference for one chamber over the other. We tested the effects of social rank and housing condition by comparing the performance of dyads that were polarised into dominant and subordinate relationships, both when paired and when separated, with mice that were isolated throughout. The development of conditioned place preference (CPP) supported by home cage odours was influenced by social rank but not by housing condition. Only subordinate mice showed CPP to home cage odours, and this effect was seen irrespective of whether they were housed with a dominant cage mate or alone. Neither dominant (paired or separated) nor isolated mice showed any change in their preference for the chamber associated with home cage odours. This suggests that the smell of home is a more powerful reinforcer for subordinate mice in that it can produce contextual conditioning to the environment in which it is experienced. Physiology & Behavior, 87,[955][956][957][958][959][960][961][962] Laboratory rodents spend a large amount of time in their home cage environment.How do they like it? It is known that the home cage can act as an effective reinforcer for mice tested in a radial maze procedure (45). However, very few studies have investigated how mice rate the home cage environment relative to alternatives, but see (59,60).An important aspect of the home environment is whether the animal is housed singly or in a group. In their natural state, house mice (Mus domesticus) typically live in social groups (24,25,26,38,48). As would be expected, what evidence there is suggests that group housing promotes welfare in laboratories (20,61,64,65).

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Social structure features in three inbred strains of mice, C57B1/6J, Balb/cj, and NIH: a comparative study

Cited by 68 publications

References 14 publications

Colony formation of C57BL/6J mice in visible burrow system: Identification of eusocial behaviors in a background strain for genetic animal models of autism

Colony formation of C57BL/6J mice in visible burrow system: Identification of eusocial behaviors in a background strain for genetic animal models of autism

Inhibition of neuronal nitric oxide reduces anxiety-like responses to pair housing

There's no place like home: Cage odours and place preference in subordinate CD-1 male mice

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