title: Three murine anxiety models: results from multiple inbred strain comparisons.
abstract: The literature surrounding rodent models of human anxiety disorders is discrepant concerning which models reflect anxiety-like behavior distinct from general activity and whether different models are measuring the same underlying constructs. This experiment compared the responses of 15 inbred mouse strains (129S1/SvlmJ, A/J, AKR/J, BALB/cByJ, C3H/HeJ, C57BL/6J, C57L/J, CBA/J, CE/J, DBA/2J, FVB/NJ, NZB/B1NJ, PL/J, SJL/J and SWR/J) in three anxiety-like behavioral tasks (light/dark test, elevated zero-maze and open field) to examine whether responses were phenotypically and/or genetically correlated across tasks. Significant strain differences were found for all variables examined. Principal components analyses showed that variables associated with both activity and anxiety-like behaviors loaded onto one factor, while urination and defecation loaded onto another factor. Our findings differ from previous research by suggesting that general activity and anxiety-related behaviors are linked, negatively correlated and cannot easily be dissociated in these assays. However, these findings may not necessarily generalize to other unconditioned anxiety-like behavioral tests.
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral Neuroscience, Portland Alcohol Research Center, Oregon Health & Science University, VA Medical Center, Portland, OR 97239, USA. milnerl@ohsu.edu
authors.forename: L C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Milner
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Crabbe
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology*; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D003672:Defecation / Q000235:genetics; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005106:Exploratory Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000502:physiology; D051379:Mice; D008815:Mice, Inbred Strains; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010641:Phenotype; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D013045:Species Specificity; D014554:Urination / Q000235:genetics