title: Measuring behavior in mice with chronic stress depression paradigm.
abstract: Many studies with chronic stress, a common depression paradigm, lead to inconsistent behavioral results. We are introducing a new model of stress-induced anhedonia, which provides more reproducible induction and behavioral measuring of depressive-like phenotype in mice. First, a 4-week stress procedure induces anhedonia, defined by decreased sucrose preference, in the majority of but not all C57BL/6 mice. The remaining 30-50% non-anhedonic animals are used as an internal control for stress effects that are unrelated to anhedonia. Next, a modified sucrose test enables the detection of inter-individual differences in mice. Moreover, testing under dimmed lighting precludes behavioral artifacts caused by hyperlocomotion, a major confounding factor in stressed mice. Finally, moderation of the stress load increases the reproducibility of anhedonia induction, which otherwise is difficult to provide because of inter-batch variability in laboratory mice. We believe that our new mouse model overcomes some major difficulties in measuring behavior with chronic stress depression models.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, Universiteitssingel 50, NL 6229 ER Maastricht, Netherlands. t.strekalova@maastrichtuniversity.nl
authors.forename: Tatyana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Strekalova
authors.forename: Harry W M
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Steinbusch
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000502:physiology; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004327:Drinking Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D005106:Exploratory Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D005518:Food Preferences / Q000502:physiology; D019417:Hindlimb Suspension / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000502:physiology; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013395:Sucrose / Q000008:administration & dosage; D013549:Sweetening Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage; D013550:Swimming / Q000523:psychology; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D013549:Sweetening Agents; D013395:Sucrose