Department of Pharmacology, Unit of Biological Research and Development, Palau Pharma SA, Barcelona, Spain.
Lab Anim. 2011 Oct;45(4):247-53. doi: 10.1258/la.2011.010071. Epub 2011 Jun 22.
Some experimental procedures are associated with placement of animals in wire-bottom cages. The goal of this study was to evaluate stress-related physiological parameters (heart rate [HR], body temperature [BT], locomotor activity [LA], body weight [BW] and food consumption) in rats under two housing conditions, namely in wire-bottom cages and in bedding-bottom cages. Telemetry devices were surgically implanted in male Sprague-Dawley rats. HR, BT and LA were recorded at 5 min intervals. Analysis under each housing condition was performed from 16:00 to 08:00 h of the following day (4 h light, 12 h dark). During almost all of the light phase, the HR of rats housed in wire-bottom cages remained high (371 ± 35 bpm; mean ± SD; n = 6) and was significantly different from that of rats housed in bedding-bottom cages (340 ± 29 bpm; n = 6; P < 0.001; Student's t-test). In general, BT was similar under the two housing conditions. However, when rats were in wire-bottom cages, BT tended to fluctuate more widely during the dark phase. LA decreased when animals were housed in wire-bottom cages, in particular during the dark phase. Moreover, there was a significant difference with respect to the gain in BW: BW of rats housed in bedding-bottom cages increased 12 ± 2 g, whereas that of rats in wire-bottom cages decreased by 2 ± 3 g (P < 0.001). Our results demonstrate that housing rats in wire-bottom cages overnight leads to immediate alterations of HR, BW and LA, which might be related to a stress response.
一些实验程序涉及将动物放置在金属丝底笼中。本研究的目的是评估两种饲养条件下大鼠的应激相关生理参数（心率[HR]、体温[BT]、活动量[LA]、体重[BW]和食物消耗），即金属丝底笼和铺垫料底笼。雄性 Sprague-Dawley 大鼠通过手术植入遥测设备。以 5 分钟的间隔记录 HR、BT 和 LA。在每种饲养条件下的分析均在次日 16:00 至 08:00 进行（4 小时光照，12 小时黑暗）。在几乎整个光照阶段，金属丝底笼中饲养的大鼠的 HR 一直较高（371 ± 35 bpm；平均值 ± 标准差；n = 6），与铺垫料底笼中饲养的大鼠的 HR 显著不同（340 ± 29 bpm；n = 6；P < 0.001；Student's t 检验）。一般来说，两种饲养条件下的 BT 相似。然而，当大鼠处于金属丝底笼中时，BT 在黑暗期的波动幅度较大。当动物被安置在金属丝底笼中时，LA 会减少，尤其是在黑暗期。此外，BW 的增加也存在显著差异：铺垫料底笼中饲养的大鼠 BW 增加了 12 ± 2 g，而金属丝底笼中饲养的大鼠 BW 减少了 2 ± 3 g（P < 0.001）。我们的研究结果表明，大鼠在金属丝底笼中过夜饲养会导致 HR、BW 和 LA 的即时改变，这可能与应激反应有关。
