Dataset Information

Assessment of the Stress Response in North American Deermice: Laboratory and Field Validation of Two Enzyme Immunoassays for Fecal Corticosterone Metabolites.

ABSTRACT: Stress physiology is commonly employed in studies of wildlife ecology and conservation. Accordingly, we need robust and suitable methods to measure stress physiology in the field. Fecal cortisol/corticosterone metabolites (FCMs) are now increasingly being used to non-invasively evaluate adrenocortical activity; a measure of stress physiology. However, immunoassays that measure FCMs must be appropriately validated prior to their use and factors that can influence FCMs, such as trap-induced stress, must be considered. Deermice (Peromyscus maniculatus) are widely used in scientific studies so that developing methods that appropriately measure their adrenocortical activity is critical. In the laboratory, we tested the suitability of two enzyme immunoassays (EIAs; a corticosterone EIA, and a group-specific 5?-pregnane-3?,11?,21-triol-20-one EIA) in deermice by challenging individuals with dexamethasone and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH). We found that dexamethasone suppressed FCM levels within ~10 h post injection whereas ACTH increased FCM levels within ~2 h post injection. In the field, we found that FCM levels generally increased with more time in trap confinement when using both EIAs. Although we acknowledge low sample sizes (N = 4), our results validated the two EIAs for use with FCMs from deermice.

SUBMITTER: Eleftheriou A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7401612 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Assessment of the Stress Response in North American Deermice: Laboratory and Field Validation of Two Enzyme Immunoassays for Fecal Corticosterone Metabolites.

Eleftheriou Andreas A Palme Rupert R Boonstra Rudy R

Animals : an open access journal from MDPI 20200630 7

Stress physiology is commonly employed in studies of wildlife ecology and conservation. Accordingly, we need robust and suitable methods to measure stress physiology in the field. Fecal cortisol/corticosterone metabolites (FCMs) are now increasingly being used to non-invasively evaluate adrenocortical activity; a measure of stress physiology. However, immunoassays that measure FCMs must be appropriately validated prior to their use and factors that can influence FCMs, such as trap-induced stress ...[more]

PMID: 32630075

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Project description:Since animal experiments cannot be completely avoided, the pain, suffering, and distress of laboratory animals must be minimized. To this end, a major prerequisite is reliable assessment of pain and distress. Usually, evaluation of animal welfare is done by visual inspection and score sheets. However, relatively little is known about whether standardized, but subjective, score sheets are able to reliably reflect the status of the animals. The current study aimed to compare visual assessment scores and changes in body weight with concentrations of fecal corticosterone metabolites (FCMs) in a neuroscientific experimental setup. Additionally, effects of refinement procedures were investigated. Eight male adult Sprague-Dawley rats underwent several experimental interventions, including electroencephalograph electrode implantation and subsequent recording, positron emission tomography (PET), and sleep deprivation (SD) by motorized activity wheels. Additional 16 rats were either used as controls without any treatment or to evaluate refinement strategies. Stress responses were determined on a daily basis by means of measuring FCMs, body weight, and evaluation of the animals' welfare by standardized score sheets. Surgery provoked a significant elevation of FCM levels for up to five days. Increases in FCMs due to PET procedures or SD in activity wheels were also highly significant, while visual assessment scores did not indicate elevated stress levels and body weights remained constant. Visual assessment scores correlate with neither changes in body weight nor increases in FCM levels. Habituation procedures to activity wheels used for SD had no impact on corticosterone release. Our results revealed that actual score sheets for visual assessment of animal welfare did not mirror physiological stress responses assessed by FCM measurements. Moreover, small changes in body weight did not correlate with FCM concentration either. In conclusion, as visual assessment is a method allowing immediate interventions on suffering animals to alleviate burden, timely stress assessment in experimental rodents via score sheets should be ideally complemented by validated objective measures (e.g., fecal FCM measured by well-established assays for reliable detection of FCMs). This will complete a comprehensive appraisal of the animals' welfare status in a retrospective manner and refine stressor procedures in the long run.

Dataset Information

Assessment of the Stress Response in North American Deermice: Laboratory and Field Validation of Two Enzyme Immunoassays for Fecal Corticosterone Metabolites.

Publications

Assessment of the Stress Response in North American Deermice: Laboratory and Field Validation of Two Enzyme Immunoassays for Fecal Corticosterone Metabolites.

Similar Datasets

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