Garner Joseph P, Weisker Sandra M, Dufour Brett, Mench Joy A
Department of Animal Science, University of California, One Shields Avenue, Davis, California 95616, USA.
Comp Med. 2004 Apr;54(2):216-24.
Animal diseases that develop spontaneously in a limited subpopulation can provide powerful models of human disease because they provide a means to investigate the interaction of a broad range of biological and environmental etiologic processes. In contrast, with experimentally induced animal models, the etiology of the model is inherently fixed, and can only speak to a limited subset of those involved in the human disease. 'Barbering' (abnormal whisker- and fur-plucking behavior) in mice resembles human trichotillomania (compulsive hair plucking) in that barbering mice pluck focused areas of hair, and engage in post-plucking manipulatory and oral behaviors. We performed a cross-sectional epidemiologic survey of a population of 2,950 laboratory mice to further assess the face validity of barbering as a spontaneous model of trichotillomania. Patterns of hair loss and demographic and etiologic risk factors were recorded for each mouse, and were analyzed by use of logistic regression. Barbering paralleled trichotillomania in terms of phenomenology, demography, and etiology. Thus, similar to trichotillomania, barbers predominately plucked hair from the scalp and around the eyes and the genitals; barbering was female biased, and had its onset during puberty; and etiologic factors included reproductive status and genetic background. Therefore, barbering has excellent face validity as a model of trichotillomania, and may represent a refined and non-invasive model, especially for studies of the complex genetic/environmental etiologies of this disorder.
在有限亚群中自发出现的动物疾病能够提供强大的人类疾病模型，因为它们提供了一种手段来研究广泛的生物和环境病因过程之间的相互作用。相比之下，对于实验诱导的动物模型，其病因本质上是固定的，只能说明人类疾病所涉及的有限子集。小鼠的“拔毛行为”（异常的胡须和毛发拔除行为）类似于人类的拔毛癖（强迫性拔毛），因为拔毛的小鼠会拔除特定部位的毛发，并在拔毛后进行操控和口部行为。我们对2950只实验小鼠群体进行了横断面流行病学调查，以进一步评估拔毛行为作为拔毛癖自发模型的表面效度。记录每只小鼠的脱发模式、人口统计学和病因风险因素，并使用逻辑回归进行分析。拔毛行为在现象学、人口统计学和病因学方面与拔毛癖相似。因此，与拔毛癖类似，拔毛小鼠主要从头皮、眼睛周围和生殖器部位拔毛；拔毛行为存在雌性偏好，且在青春期开始出现；病因因素包括生殖状态和遗传背景。所以，拔毛行为作为拔毛癖模型具有出色的表面效度，可能代表一种精细且非侵入性的模型，尤其适用于研究该疾病复杂的遗传/环境病因。
