SFEBES2007 Poster Presentations Diabetes, metabolism and cardiovascular (63 abstracts)
Metabolic cage studies reveal that mice require 5 days for acclimatisation: establishing normal urinary and blood biochemistry values in BALB/c and C3H/HeH inbred mouse strains
Michael Stechman 1 , Bushra Ahmad 1 , Nellie Loh 1 , Anita Reed 1 , Tertius Hough 2 , Liz Bentley 3 , Roger Cox 3 , Steve Brown 3 & Rajesh Thakker 1
1Academic Endocrine Unit, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom; 2Mary Lyon Centre, Medical Research Council, Harwell, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom; 3MRC Mammalian Genetics Unit, Medical Research Council, Harwell, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom.
Inbred laboratory mice are widely used to generate, by homologous recombination, transgenic and chemical mutagenesis routes, genetic models of human disease. However, physiological studies of such models are hampered by the lack of normal ranges for serum and urinary biochemistry, particularly in relation to acclimatisation following placement in metabolic cages. To establish such values, we investigated urinary and serum parameters in forty, 24–30 week-old C3H/HeH, BALB/c, and second generation (G2) backcross C3H/BALB/c×C3H/HeH mice (n=5–10 for each strain and sex), and assessed the effects of stress and acclimatisation to metabolic cages. Mice were kept in accordance with UK Home Office welfare guidelines and project license restrictions, and housed individually in cages (Tecniplast UK Ltd) with ad libitum feeding for up to seven days. Daily dietary intake and urine volume were measured. Daily urine samples and a single plasma sample, obtained at the end of the study, were analysed, using an Olympus AU400 analyser, for electrolytes, glucose, cholesterol and metabolites. Statistical analysis was performed on the plasma and urine data using the unpaired Student’s t-test, and acclimatisation data for dietary and fluid intake and urine output were analysed using a paired Student’s t-test. The plasma and urinary biochemical measurements were similar for both sexes and for the three strains. Intake of food and water, and urinary output, in both sexes and the three strains, did not reach stable values until day five of the study; however, urinary sodium:creatinine and calcium:creatinine ratios reached stable values by day three of the study. Thus, our studies, which have established normal reference values for plasma and urinary biochemical parameters, demonstrate that reducing the variability of the physiological measurements in metabolic cage studies is dependent on achieving a five-day period of acclimatisation in mice from these three strains.
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Endocrine Abstracts
ISSN 1470-3947 (print) | ISSN 1479-6848 (online)
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