title: Daily acclimation handling does not affect hippocampal long-term potentiation or cause chronic sleep deprivation in mice.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Gentle handling is commonly used to perform brief sleep deprivation in rodents. It was recently reported that daily acclimation handling, which is often used before behavioral assays, causes alterations in sleep, stress, and levels of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor subunits prior to the actual period of sleep deprivation. It was therefore suggested that acclimation handling could mediate some of the observed effects of subsequent sleep deprivation. Here, we examine whether acclimation handling, performed as in our sleep deprivation studies, alters sleep/wake behavior, stress, or forms of hippocampal synaptic plasticity that are impaired by sleep deprivation.
  
  
  METHODS
  Adult C57BL/6J mice were either handled daily for 6 days or were left undisturbed in their home cages. On the day after the 6(th) day of handling, long-term potentiation (LTP) was induced in hippocampal slices with spaced four-train stimulation, which we previously demonstrated to be impaired by brief sleep deprivation. Basal synaptic properties were also assessed. In three other sets of animals, activity monitoring, polysomnography, and stress hormone measurements were performed during the 6 days of handling.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Daily gentle handling alone does not alter LTP, rest/activity patterns, or sleep/wake architecture. Handling initially induces a minimal stress response, but by the 6(th) day, stress hormone levels are unaltered by handling.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It is possible to handle mice daily to accustom them to the researcher without causing alterations in sleep, stress, or synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus. Therefore, effects of acclimation handling cannot explain the impairments in signaling mechanisms, synaptic plasticity, and memory that result from brief sleep deprivation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Vecsey
authors.forename: Mathieu E J
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Wimmer
authors.forename: Robbert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Havekes
authors.forename: Alan J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Isaac J
authors.initials: IJ
authors.lastname: Perron
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Meerlo
authors.forename: Ted
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Abel
mesh_terms: D000064:Acclimatization / Q000502:physiology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003345:Corticosterone / Q000097:blood; D006234:Handling, Psychological; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology*; D017774:Long-Term Potentiation / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology; D017286:Polysomnography / Q000379:methods; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D012892:Sleep Deprivation
chemical_list: D003345:Corticosterone
keywords: Gentle handling; hippocampus; mouse; sleep deprivation; synaptic plasticity
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