Browse
Submit Data
Databases
API
Help

Dataset Information

0 Views

0 Connections

0 Citations

0 Reanalyses

0 Downloads

Omics score: 0

Environmental enrichment and exercise housing protocols for mice.

ABSTRACT: Here, we present a protocol that allows comparison of the effects of the standard home cage, environmentally enriched home cage with additional super-enrichment, and the exercise (running wheels only) home cage in laboratory mice. We first describe the steps to assemble these three types of cages, respectively. We then detail the assembly of super-enrichment arenas, which provide additional stimulation beyond that provided by home-cage enrichment. This protocol can help to improve reproducibility of results from studies involving environmental enrichment and exercise by offering consistent housing conditions between laboratories. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Gubert et al. (2021).

SUBMITTER: Love CJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9493135 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Json Xml

Publications

Environmental enrichment and exercise housing protocols for mice.

Love Chloe J CJ Gubert Carolina C Renoir Thibault T Hannan Anthony J AJ

STAR protocols 20220919 4

Here, we present a protocol that allows comparison of the effects of the standard home cage, environmentally enriched home cage with additional super-enrichment, and the exercise (running wheels only) home cage in laboratory mice. We first describe the steps to assemble these three types of cages, respectively. We then detail the assembly of super-enrichment arenas, which provide additional stimulation beyond that provided by home-cage enrichment. This protocol can help to improve reproducibilit ...[more]

PMID: 36125931

Similar Datasets

Strain and sex dependent effects of isolation housing relative to environmental enrichment on operant sensation seeking in mice.

Project description:Sensation seeking is a multidimensional phenotype that predicts the development of drug addiction in humans and addiction-like drug seeking in rodents. Several lines of evidence suggest that chronic stress increases sensation seeking and addiction-like drug seeking through common genetic mechanisms. Discovery and characterization of these mechanisms would reveal how chronic stress interacts with the genome to influence sensation seeking and how drugs of abuse hijack these fundamental reward mechanisms to drive addiction. To this end, we tested the hypothesis that chronic isolation housing stress (relative to environmental enrichment) influences operant sensation seeking as a function of strain, sex, or their interaction. To determine if the BXD recombinant inbred panel could be used to identify genetic and epigenetic mechanisms underlying any identified gene-by-environment interactions, we used mice from the two BXD founder strains. Following 10 weeks of differential housing, we assessed operant sensation seeking using several reinforcement schedules. The primary finding from this study was that DBA/2J but not C57BL/6J mice were significantly vulnerable to an isolation-induced increase (relative to environmental enrichment) in sensation seeking during extinction when the sensory reward was no longer available; this effect was significantly more robust in females. These data reveal a previously unknown isolation-induced effect on extinction of operant sensation seeking that is sex-dependent, addiction-relevant, and that can be dissected using the BXD recombinant inbred panel.

| S-EPMC8426458 | biostudies-literature

Housing temperature influences exercise training adaptations in mice.

Project description:Exercise training is a powerful means to combat metabolic diseases. Mice are extensively used to investigate the benefits of exercise, but mild cold stress induced by ambient housing temperatures may confound translation to humans. Thermoneutral housing is a strategy to make mice more metabolically similar to humans but its effects on exercise adaptations are unknown. Here we show that thermoneutral housing blunts exercise-induced improvements in insulin action in muscle and adipose tissue and reduces the effects of training on energy expenditure, body composition, and muscle and adipose tissue protein expressions. Thus, many reported effects of exercise training in mice are likely secondary to metabolic stress of ambient housing temperature, making it challenging to translate to humans. We conclude that adaptations to exercise training in mice critically depend upon housing temperature. Our findings underscore housing temperature as a critical parameter in the design and interpretation of murine exercise training studies.

| S-EPMC7096511 | biostudies-literature

Long-lasting housing environment manipulation and acute loss of environmental enrichment impact BALB/c mice behaviour in multiple functional domains.

Project description:Understanding environmental influences on individuals' behaviour is challenging. Here we have investigated the housing impact of 9 weeks of enriched environment (EE) and social isolation (SI) and the impact of abrupt deprivation of EE (enrichment removal: ER) on BALB/c mice. Compared with the widely used C57BL/6 strain in research, BALB/c synthesises serotonin less efficiently due to a genetic variation and thus may potentially represent human populations at higher risk of stress-related disorders. We assessed the effects of EE and SI by conducting a behavioural test battery and the effects of acute ER by monitoring homecage activities and social behaviour. We found that EE and SI impact BALB/c's physiological states and behavioural performances from lower to higher cognitive processes: increased body weight, increased rectal temperature, altered performance in motor and sensory tasks, the activity level in a novel environment and altered performance in tests of anxiety-like behaviour, stress-coping strategies and learning and memory. Furthermore, acute ER triggered stress/frustration-like behaviour in BALB/c, with increased aggression, increased social distancing and disrupted daily/nightly activities. Our results demonstrate that long-lasting housing manipulation such as EE and SI, impact behaviour via multilayered processes over a wide range of functional domains, and unforeseen change to a negative environment, ER, is a major stressor that causes behavioural and psychological consequences through environment-gene interactions, a model of direct relevance to human health.

| S-EPMC9306724 | biostudies-literature

Laboratory mouse housing conditions can be improved using common environmental enrichment without compromising data.

Project description:Animal welfare requires the adequate housing of animals to ensure health and well-being. The application of environmental enrichment is a way to improve the well-being of laboratory animals. However, it is important to know whether these enrichment items can be incorporated in experimental mouse husbandry without creating a divide between past and future experimental results. Previous small-scale studies have been inconsistent throughout the literature, and it is not yet completely understood whether and how enrichment might endanger comparability of results of scientific experiments. Here, we measured the effect on means and variability of 164 physiological parameters in 3 conditions: with nesting material with or without a shelter, comparing these 2 conditions to a "barren" regime without any enrichments. We studied a total of 360 mice from each of 2 mouse strains (C57BL/6NTac and DBA/2NCrl) and both sexes for each of the 3 conditions. Our study indicates that enrichment affects the mean values of some of the 164 parameters with no consistent effects on variability. However, the influence of enrichment appears negligible compared to the effects of other influencing factors. Therefore, nesting material and shelters may be used to improve animal welfare without impairment of experimental outcome or loss of comparability to previous data collected under barren housing conditions.

| S-EPMC5922977 | biostudies-literature

Pet Owner Perception of Ferret Boredom and Consequences for Housing, Husbandry, and Environmental Enrichment.

Project description:Boredom is a potential chronic but overlooked animal welfare problem. Caused by monotony, sub-optimal stimulation, and restrictive housing, boredom can therefore affect companion animals, particularly those traditionally caged, such as ferrets. We surveyed owners' (n = 621) perceptions of ferrets' capacity to experience boredom, behaviours they associate with it, and whether their perception of their ferrets' capacity for boredom influenced training techniques, housing, and environmental enrichment (EE). Most (93.0%) owners believed that ferrets could experience boredom, but owners who doubted that ferrets experience boredom (7.0%) provided slightly but significantly fewer EE types to their ferrets. Heat map and classification tree analysis showed that owners identified scratching at enclosure walls (n = 420) and excessive sleeping (n = 312) as distinctive behavioural indicators of ferret boredom. Repetitive pacing (n = 381), yawning (n = 191), and resting with eyes open (n = 171) were also suggested to indicate ferret boredom, but these overlapped with other states. Finally, ferret owners suggested social housing, tactile interaction with humans, and exploration as most important for preventing boredom. These results suggest that pet ferrets are at risk of reduced welfare from owners who doubt they can experience boredom, highlighting an opportunity to improve welfare through information dissemination. We recommend further investigation into ferret boredom capacity, behavioural indicators, and mitigation strategies.

| S-EPMC9740969 | biostudies-literature

Environmental enrichment counteracts Alzheimer's neurovascular dysfunction in TgCRND8 mice.

Project description:We and others have recently demonstrated that cognitive and physical stimulation in form of environmental enrichment reduces cerebral beta-amyloid (Abeta) deposition in transgenic mouse models of Alzheimer's disease. This effect was independent from amyloid precursor protein (APP) expression or processing and rather a consequence of enhanced clearance of Abeta. However, the detailed mechanisms remain unclear. In the present study, we show that environmental enrichment in TgCRND8 mice (carrying human APP(Swedish+Indiana)) affect the neurovascular unit by increased angiogenesis and differential regulation of Abeta receptor/transporter molecules, namely up-regulation of LRP1, ApoE and A2M as well as down-regulation of RAGE so that brain to blood Abeta clearance is facilitated. These results suggest a hitherto unknown effect of environmental enrichment counteracting the vascular dysfunction in Alzheimer diseased brain.

| S-EPMC8095618 | biostudies-literature

Housing temperature alters exercise training adaptations in mice

Project description:Housing temperature alters exercise training adaptations in mice

| PRJEB35066 | ENA

Social housing enhances acquisition of task set independently of environmental enrichment: A longitudinal study in the Barnes maze.

Project description:Human studies suggest that healthy social relationships benefit cognition, yet little is known about the underlying neural mechanisms of this protective effect. In rodents, studies on acute isolation and environmental enrichment (EE) confirm the importance of social exposure. Despite the widely recognized importance of sociality, however, rodent models have yet to explore the independent contributions of social housing divorced of other forms of enrichment. This study dissociates the effects of social and physical enrichment on spatial learning and memory from adulthood to old age. Rats were placed in either single or group housing, provided with ample enrichment, and tested at three time points on several phases/versions of the Barnes maze (BM) (standard, retention probes, variable location, and reversal). We found that sustained social housing enhanced cognitive flexibility, as evidenced by superior acquisition of task set (standard BM), adaptability to a new task set (variable BM), and improved reversal learning (reversal BM). Long-term retention (BM retention probes) of spatial memory was unaffected by housing conditions. Recent studies from our lab, including this report, are the first to show that social housing confers cognitive benefits beyond those of physical enrichment. Importantly, our experimental design is ideal for exploring the neural underpinnings of this socially induced cognitive protection. Understanding how sociality influences cognition will be invaluable to translational models of aging, neuropsychiatric disease, and neurological injury.

| S-EPMC7415481 | biostudies-literature

Exercise and Environmental Enrichment as Enablers of Task-Specific Neuroplasticity and Stroke Recovery.

Project description:Improved stroke care has resulted in greater survival, but >50% of patients have chronic disabilities and 33% are institutionalized. While stroke rehabilitation is helpful, recovery is limited and the most significant gains occur in the first 2-3 months. Stroke triggers an early wave of gene and protein changes, many of which are potentially beneficial for recovery. It is likely that these molecular changes are what subserve spontaneous recovery. Two interventions, aerobic exercise and environmental enrichment, have pleiotropic actions that influence many of the same molecular changes associated with stroke injury and subsequent spontaneous recovery. Enrichment paradigms have been used for decades in adult and neonatal animal models of brain injury and are now being adapted for use in the clinic. Aerobic exercise enhances motor recovery and helps reduce depression after stroke. While exercise attenuates many of the signs associated with normal aging (e.g., hippocampal atrophy), its ability to reverse cognitive impairments subsequent to stroke is less evident. It may be that stroke, like other diseases such as cancer, needs to use multimodal treatments that augment complimentary neurorestorative processes.

| S-EPMC4824016 | biostudies-literature

Early-life environmental enrichment generates persistent individualized behavior in mice.

Project description:Individuals differ in their response to environmental stimuli, but the stability of individualized behaviors and their associated changes in brain plasticity are poorly understood. We developed a novel model of enriched environment to longitudinally monitor 40 inbred mice exploring 35 connected cages over periods of 3 to 6 months. We show that behavioral individuality that emerged during the first 3 months of environmental enrichment persisted when mice were withdrawn from the enriched environment for 3 additional months. Behavioral trajectories were associated with stable interindividual differences in adult hippocampal neurogenesis and persistent epigenetic effects on neuronal plasticity genes in the hippocampus. Using genome-wide DNA methylation sequencing, we show that one-third of the DNA methylation changes were maintained after withdrawal from the enriched environment. Our results suggest that, even under conditions that control genetic background and shared environment, early-life experiences result in lasting individualized changes in behavior, brain plasticity, and epigenetics.

| S-EPMC7449688 | biostudies-literature

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

OmicsDI is an Elixir interoperability service. Learn more ›

Tweets

OmicsDI Databases

PRIDE
PeptideAtlas
MassIVE
JPOST Repository
Physiome Model Repository

EGA
EVA
ENA
LINCS
PAXDB
Cell Collective

MetaboLights
Metabolomics Workbench
MetabolomeExpress
GNPS
BioModels
FAIRDOMHub

ArrayExpress
dbGaP
ExpressionAtlas
GEO
NODE

Information

Databases
Help
API
Contact us
Code on GitHub
Terms of use
Submit Data