2009 - Volume 36 - Issue 1

5-9
Technical Report: Technique of Bladder Catheterization in Female Mice and Rats for Intravesical Instillation in Models of Bladder Cancer
by PA Oliveira, MJ Pires, C Nóbrega, R Arantes-Rodrigues, AM Calado, J Carrola, M Ginja & A Colaço

Animal models offer a system that enables a better understanding of basic biological questions. Urinary bladder catheterization is a common procedure in models of female urothelial tumours and yet the technique does still need to be described further. The methods described in the existing literature do not outline how the procedure should be adapted for different research goals. In this report, we describe systematically catheterization of female mice and rats as well as analysing several anaesthetic protocols, which can be used to carry out this technical procedure.

11-16
Use of Water Immersion to Ameliorate the Progression of Chronic Experimental Kidney Disease
by Ülle Pechter, Ingrid Kalev, Külli Kõlvald, Zivile Riispere & Mai Rosenberg

The possible benefits of aquatic environment to kidney function in renal failure stages not much been investigated. It is known that water environment could influence renal function positively: plasma renin activity is reduced, contributing to renal vascular pressure and sodium excretion. Water immersion causes increase in renal blood flow and contributes to the lowering in renal sympathetic nerve activity, renal vascular pressure and decrease in plasma renin activity. Non-swimming aerobic aquatic exercises have shown a beneficial effect to chronic kidney disease patients. We hypothesized that the aquatic environment could improve renal functioning and even slow the progression rate of chronic kidney disease (CKD). The aim of our study was to investigate the effects of regular water immersion and voluntary swimming to the rate of progression of experimental CKD. Wistar rats were divided into matched groups 2 weeks after 5/6 nephrectomy (5/6NPX) and studied during 18 weeks. One group was subjected to water immersion with water temperature 38o and swimming without exhaustion 30 min daily for 12 weeks. Control groups remained sedentary. Chronic studies of systolic blood pressure and urinary protein excretion rate (mg/24h) were performed. Renal morphology was studied and MCP-1 gene expression level was investigated in kidney tissue samples at the end of the study. The main systolic blood pressure was significantly lower and proteinuria was reduced significantly in the swimming-immersion group compared to control 5/6NPX animals. The degree of glomerulosclerosis and interstitial fibrosis was significantly less prominent in the water-therapy group. Expression of mRNA for chemokine MCP-1 in glomeruli of CKD animals differs significantly between the water-therapy group and control 5/6NPX group and was closely associated with effects on proteinuria and systolic blood pressure. These results point to the additional renoprotective properties of long-term water immersion and daily aquatic therapy in rats with CKD.

19-29
Physiological Particularities of Dromedary (Camelus dromedarius) and Experimental Implications
by Souilem Ouajd & Barhoumi Kamel

The one humped camel (Camelus dromedarius) or Arabian camel is an essential source of food and milk in many parts of the world and especially in developing countries in Africa and Asia. The dromedary plays economic, social and ecological roles. In some regions, camels were expected to boost local tourism and bring much-needed funds to the local economy. The camel contributes actively to maintain the desert ecosystem. In fact, it possesses some unique qualities which make it distinctly superior to other domestic livestock. The capacity of the dromedary to live under desert conditions and to survive in the incredibly hard environment of the Sahara is due to its biological and physiological particularities. All the functions of the dromedary organism are conceived to be physiologically adapted to “water and food restrictions” and to a very hot climate. We will review the homeostatic adaptations in relation to the physiological characteristics of the dromedary and the experimental implications, which result from these particularities. Indeed, the researcher must consider the specificities of this species at various levels of the experimentation (housing, acclimation, handling…) and must take consideration of the normal behaviour of the dromedary and its welfare.

31-35
From the Bottom to the Top – A Technical and Managerial Career in Laboratory Animal Science in USA: A Personal Experience and some Career Advice
by Ulla Kristina Stephens

There are many options for a technical and managerial laboratory animal science career in the USA, and the career path taken by Mrs. U. Kristina Stephens in laboratory animal science and management from 1960 through 2003 are explored in some detail. Mrs. Stephens outlines her career through the many challenges and opportunities that entered her path which offered additional education and management techniques. Important building blocks for an animal science and management career are evaluated such as: Working with different animal species; Personal attitude and goal setting; Formal and Informal education possibilities; USA Certification levels; Building of a resume; Technical aptitude and knowledge; and People skills. Career paths taken by several successful individuals living in USA point to the diversity of possibilities.

37-45
Anxiety in Relation to Animal Environment and Welfare
by Amber R. Salomons, Saskia S. Arndt & Frauke Ohl

Negative emotions do not compromise welfare, as long as they do not exceed the individual’s adaptive capabilities. Anxiety, though a negative emotion, is highly conserved during evolution, and essential for enabling an individual to both escape from dangerous situations and to avoid them in the future, i.e. to adapt to environmental challenges. However, the interactions between anxiety and environment are highly dynamic and can result in non-adaptive anxiety responses. Non-adaptive anxiety responses not only compromise the animal’s welfare, but may be substantially detrimental to experimental results even in non-behavioural studies by dramatically reducing the reliability of the study results obtained. Detailed knowledge about the emotional phenotype of experimental animals used is necessary to reach a balance between reliability of experimental research and the welfare of laboratory animals.

47-51
Considerations in the Construction of a New Preclinical Facility
by Peter Glerup

Many aspects need to be considered in details before construction of a new preclinical facility. These aspects include requirements in relation to international guidelines for preclinical studies, Good Laboratory Practice, barriers, animal welfare legislation, occupational health and customer expectations. This article describes some of the most important elements that should be considered in this respect, seen in the light of drug development. It should be remembered that detailed individual plans are always required for each specific facility for the following reasons. Legislative discrepancies between countries may influence the final design of a facility from one country to another. In addition, different types of work may be undertaken by each individual laboratory, leading to various needs for each site. Furthermore, as working routines to some extent are usually site-specific, this may also influence the optimal construction between laboratories. This article should therefore be seen as a guide to thoughts that should be made before construction of a new facility. It is not the intention that it should be used as a detailed check-list.

55-66
Imaging Techniques in Large Animals
by Aage Kristian Olsen Alstrup & Michael Winterdahl

Imaging techniques in large animals bridges the gap between preclinical and clinical research.
The same scanners can be used for large laboratory animals and for human beings and, with few modifications, the same scanning protocols can also be used. Therefore, knowledge obtained from imaging techniques in animal research can readily be used in humans. Similarly, medical hypotheses and problems from clinical experience with humans can often be tested and studied in large animals. Imaging techniques create either anatomical images (Computerized Tomography, CT or Magnetic Resonance Imaging, MRI) or functional images of the body (Positron Emission Tomography, PET). While X-ray radiation is used to get a cross-sectional CT image of the body, MRI involves the use of a magnetic field that forces the hydrogen cellular nuclei to align in different positions. PET utilizes radiation emitted from the animal after injection of radioactive tracers. The most commonly used large animals in imaging research are dogs, sheep, goats, pigs and nonhuman primates. These laboratory animals have large organs and blood volumes that allow repeated blood sampling, which is needed in most PET studies, while blood sampling is unnecessary for CT and MRI imaging. Large animals are outbreed, and so many animals are typically needed in each study, due to marked individual variation. That situation is unfavourable, because imaging studies of large animals are expensive and time consuming. Except for nonhuman primates, large animals must be anaesthetised for scanning procedures, and this may influence the experiments.

69-73
Sheep Behaviour, Needs, Housing and Care
by Arney D. R.

Sheep (Ovis aries) are an attractive animal for scientific procedures; for medical, veterinary and fundamental biological research. They are docile, rarely show aggression, have a (relatively) short flight distance and are gregarious. In the UK, of 3 million animal scientific procedures in 2006, over 36,000 involved sheep. Small as a proportion perhaps, but exceeded only by the number involving rats and mice, among mammals, and chickens and fish (all species). And the numbers of sheep used in experimental procedures are increasing (up 24% on the previous year). They live longer than mice and rats (up to 15 years potentially) so can be used for longer term studies. They are smaller and more manageable than cows, yet have an analagous digestive system. They are commonly used for testing for veterinary vaccines. They have a similar neural axial structure to humans, so have been used for analagous studies, such as drug testing for treatment of Huntington’s disease. They have traditionally been used in foetal physiological experiments, and in altering their genetic component to produce compounds that may be harvested in their milk, such as insulin or clotting agents for haemohpilia. Their use in fundamental genetic research has been well publicised. Other advantages are that they are highly domesticated, and we have a substantial knowledge bank of work on their behaviour. Nevertheless there remain specific welfare issues relating to the use of the sheep as an experimental animal. This presentation considers the particular behaviour of the domestic sheep and relates this to their housing, welfare, handling, and general care.

77-85
Non-Human Primate Models in Neuroscience Research
by G Perretta

Neuroscience is progressively increasing its comprehension of the normal functioning of the central and peripheral nervous system. Such understanding is essential to challenge important neurodegenerative disorders and clinical conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, etc. The aim of neuroscience research is to improve understanding of normal and pathological functions and to develop therapeutic strategies and tools. Fundamental neuroscience utilizes a variety of techniques which include: electrophysiology, imaging, and computational modelling and entails interactions with clinical studies. Non-human primates are the closest species to humans in terms of biological, physiological, immunological and neurological characteristics; their closeness has been, and is still, an important reason for using them in biomedical studies. These animals have a vertebrate brain that is most like that of humans in terms of neural circuitry and this, together with similarities with human physiological and behavioural characteristics, makes them more valuable and accurate models of neurological and psychiatric diseases than other animals. This article provides an overview of the contribution of non-human primate models in fundamental neuroscience research and in generating clinically relevant findings and therapeutic developments.

87-95
Effects of Housing Social Context on Emotional Behaviour and Physiological Responses in Female Mice
by A Bartolomucci, S Parmigiani, L Gioiosa, G Ceresini & P Palanza

In laboratory breeding procedures, mice are usually housed in single-sex unfamiliar groups since weaning, while individual housing is widely employed in many experimental settings. While there is a considerable amount of evidence on the behavioural and physiological effects of various social contexts in male mice and rats, few data are available on female mice. We examined short-term modulation of social context in the housing environment on exploratory and emotional behaviours in response to novelty (i.e., free-exploratory open field) and on physiology (i.e. organs and body weight, and basal corticosterone level) of female CD1 mice, taking into account the estrous phase as an additional variable. Living alone or grouped with siblings or with unfamiliar females for a short period (7 days) did not affect any physiological indexes of stress in female house mice and had marginal effects on emotional behaviour. When challenged with a free choice between a novel environment and their home cage, female mice housed with siblings did not differ on any behavioural parameter from females housed with same-aged unfamiliar mice, while individually housed females showed higher propensity to enter the novel arena but no differences in activity or in anxiety as compared to grouped mice. Information about sex specifics under standard housing conditions as well as in response to common laboratory procedures could be important for the understanding of sex differences in vulnerability to psychiatric disorders and response to drug treatment.

97-101
Welfare of Large Animals In Scientific Research
by Arney D. R.

For the purpose of this paper, large animal species are taken to be those animals that are commonly used as farm livestock animals namely: cows, pigs, goats, sheep, horses, camelids and deer. The numbers of procedures in the UK in 2006 involving such animals amounted to around 56,000 out of a total of around 3 million. It may be that human perception of these animals as livestock animals impairs our consideration of their needs, compared to say those of common pet animals, dogs or cats. As the perception of their environment, and the potential to suffer, of livestock animals is likely to be similar however, we should not neglect their needs. The use of large animals in scientific procedures has advantages in some respects – the animals
are in the main domesticated, and are therefore comparatively docile and have been bred to cope with captivity. Nevertheless they can display aggressive behaviour and are capable of causing significant injury, so an understanding of their behaviour can reduce risks to staff caring for and working with these animals. This presentation considers the behaviour of these animals, their needs, signs of discomfort and pain, and means to ameliorate both their welfare and the safety of staff engaged in their use.