Giménez-Llort Lydia, Torres-Lista Virginia
Institut de Neurociències, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, E-08193 Barcelona, Spain.
Department of Psychiatry and Forensic Medicine, School of Medicine, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, E-08193 Barcelona, Spain.
Animals (Basel). 2021 Apr 9;11(4):1079. doi: 10.3390/ani11041079.
The assessment of welfare and disease progression in animal models is critical. Most tools rely on evaluating individual subjects, whereas social behaviors, also sensitive to acute illness, chronic diseases, or mental health, are scarcely monitored because they are complex and time-consuming. We propose the evaluation of social nesting, a species-typical behavior naturally occurring in standard housing conditions, for such behavioral monitoring. We provide an example of its use to evaluate social deficits and the long-term effects of neonatal tactile-proprioceptive sensorial stimulation from postnatal day 1 to 21, in male and female adult 3xTg-AD mice for Alzheimer's disease compared to sex- and age-matched non-transgenic (NTg) counterparts with normal aging. Social nesting was sensitive to genotype (worse in 3xTg-AD mice), sex (worse in males), profile, and treatment (distinct time to observe the maximum score and incidence of the perfect nest). Since social nesting can be easily included in housing routines, this neuroethological approach can be useful for animal welfare, monitoring the disease's progress, and evaluating potential risk factors and effects of preventive/therapeutical strategies. Finally, the noninvasive, painless, simple, short time, and low-cost features of this home-cage monitoring are advantages that make social nesting feasible to be successfully implemented in most animal department settings.
评估动物模型中的健康状况和疾病进展至关重要。大多数工具依赖于对个体动物的评估，而对急性疾病、慢性疾病或心理健康同样敏感的社会行为却很少被监测，因为它们复杂且耗时。我们建议通过评估社会筑巢行为（一种在标准饲养条件下自然出现的物种典型行为）来进行此类行为监测。我们提供了一个例子，展示了如何使用它来评估社会缺陷以及从出生后第1天到第21天对新生雄性和雌性3xTg-AD小鼠（用于阿尔茨海默病研究）进行新生儿触觉-本体感觉刺激的长期影响，并与年龄和性别匹配的正常衰老非转基因（NTg）小鼠进行比较。社会筑巢行为对基因型（3xTg-AD小鼠表现较差）、性别（雄性表现较差）、概况和处理方式（观察到完美巢穴的最高得分和发生率的不同时间）敏感。由于社会筑巢行为可以很容易地纳入饲养日常，这种神经行为学方法对于动物健康、监测疾病进展以及评估潜在风险因素和预防/治疗策略的效果可能会很有用。最后，这种笼内监测具有非侵入性、无痛、简单、耗时短和成本低等特点，这些优势使得社会筑巢行为在大多数动物实验室环境中得以成功实施。
