Laboratory Animal Centre, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
Lab Anim. 2011 Jul;45(3):167-73. doi: 10.1258/la.2011.010134. Epub 2011 Apr 15.
Cage change is one of the unavoidable routines in laboratory rodent care. However, cage change disrupts the rodents' olfactory environment and can evoke stress reactions. In this study, the short-term cardiovascular responses to three different cage change procedures were compared with telemetric monitoring. These procedures were: placing the rats into a new, clean cage (NEW), transferring the old cage lid into the clean cage (LID) and transferring an enrichment object into the clean cage (ENR) with the animals. Seven outbred rats (four Hsd:Sprague-Dawley and three HsdBrlHan:WIST) were instrumented with telemetric transmitters. The reactions were recorded during the 24 h following the cage change procedures. All cage change procedures (and also simple handling) caused elevated heart rate and mean arterial pressure levels for up to 5 h after the procedure, with the largest effect seen during the first hour. The reactions observed after cage change were significantly (P < 0.05) greater than those observed after simple handling. The reactions after NEW were significantly higher than the reactions after ENR or LID, though the results were dependent on the stock. In Wistar rats the LID procedure resulted in smaller reactions than ENR. In Sprague-Dawley rats, the differences between ENR and LID were not so clear, but the transfer of scent-marked material into the new cage decreased the reactions compared with the NEW procedure also in this stock. Based on these results, using the old cage lid on the new cage could reduce the disturbance of cage change in rats.
笼具更换是实验室啮齿动物护理中不可避免的常规操作之一。然而，笼具更换会破坏啮齿动物的嗅觉环境，并可能引发应激反应。在这项研究中，通过遥测监测比较了三种不同笼具更换程序的短期心血管反应。这些程序分别为：将大鼠放入新的、清洁的笼子中（NEW），将旧笼子的盖子转移到清洁的笼子中（LID），以及将一个丰容物体转移到有动物的清洁笼子中（ENR）。七只杂交大鼠（四只 Hsd:Sprague-Dawley 和三只 HsdBrlHan:WIST）被植入了遥测发射器。在更换笼具程序后的 24 小时内记录反应。所有笼具更换程序（以及简单的处理）都会导致心率和平均动脉压升高，持续时间长达 5 小时，其中第一个小时的影响最大。与简单处理相比，更换笼具后的反应明显更大（P<0.05）。NEW 程序后的反应明显高于 ENR 或 LID 后的反应，尽管结果取决于品系。在 Wistar 大鼠中，LID 程序导致的反应小于 ENR。在 Sprague-Dawley 大鼠中，ENR 和 LID 之间的差异不太明显，但在这种品系中，将有气味标记的物质转移到新笼子中也会减少反应，与 NEW 程序相比。基于这些结果，在新笼子上使用旧笼子的盖子可以减少大鼠笼具更换的干扰。
