Stress and hypothermia in mice in a nose-only cigarette smoke exposure system.

In nose-only exposure systems, animals need to be restrained inside a tube, which leads to stress. Stress is known to cause hyperthermia in rodents. Chronically repeated episodes of hyperthermia could be detrimental to animal health and influence results of nose-only exposure studies. Therefore we investigated whether hyperthermia occurred in male C57BL/6J mice that were restrained for increasing lengths of time, using nosepieces held at room temperature, preheated at 37 degrees C, or thermostat controlled at different temperatures, with and without exposure to different concentrations of cigarette smoke. Body temperature, body weight, plasma corticosterone levels, and adrenal weights were recorded. Restraint using nosepieces at room temperature caused a time-dependent decrease in body temperature, which could be reversed by preheating the nosepieces to 37 degrees C. Cigarette smoke dose-dependently caused an additional decrease, which was counteracted by controlling nosepiece temperature at 38 degrees C. During 3 mo of exposure using heated nosepieces, Delta body temperature remained constant. Body weight gain did not differ between smoke-exposed and room air-breathing animals exposed using either heated or room-temperature nosepieces, but both groups gained significantly less weight, while adrenal weights were significantly and similarly increased, when compared to unrestrained littermates. Plasma corticosterone levels did not differ between the three groups. In conclusion, during restraint in nose-only exposure tubes with room temperature metal nosepieces, mice suffer a pronounced hypothermia. Preventing this by heating the nosepieces does not reduce the stress experienced by the animals.