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Systematic Scoring Analysis for Intestinal Inflammation in a Murine Dextran Sodium Sulfate-Induced Colitis Model
Published on: February 14, 2021
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Time to Integrate to Nest Test Evaluation in a Mouse DSS-Colitis Model.
Christine Häger1, Lydia M Keubler1, Svenja Biernot1
1Institute of Laboratory Animal Science and Central Animal Facility, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
Plos One
|December 5, 2015
Summary
The time to integrate to nest test (TINT) offers a less stressful alternative for assessing mouse welfare in inflammatory bowel disease models. This method effectively detects strain-related differences, supporting the 3Rs in research.
Area of Science:
- Animal welfare science
- Biomedical research ethics
- Inflammatory bowel disease modeling
Background:
- Current severity assessment in laboratory animals, particularly in mouse models of inflammatory bowel disease, relies on clinical scoring and body weight monitoring.
- These traditional methods are time-consuming, stressful for animals, and require experienced observers, posing challenges for implementing the 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction, Refinement) and EU regulations.
- The time to integrate to nest test (TINT) is a novel, easily applicable method to assess animal welfare by measuring nest-building behavior.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the utility of the time to integrate to nest test (TINT) for severity assessment in a mouse model of dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced colitis.
- To determine the influence of cage group size on TINT consistency.
- To investigate TINT's ability to detect differences related to DSS dose and mouse strain (wild-type vs. CD14-deficient).
Main Methods:
- The time to integrate to nest test (TINT) was applied to assess severity in mice with DSS-induced colitis.
- Experiments involved varying cage group sizes (4-5 mice recommended for consistency) and inducing colitis with 1% or 1.5% DSS in wild-type and Cd14-deficient mice.
- Clinical scores, body weight changes, and TINT time intervals were recorded and analyzed.
Main Results:
- Higher clinical scores and body weight loss were observed in mice treated with 1.5% DSS compared to 1% DSS.
- TINT time intervals did not show dose-dependent differences in response to DSS concentration.
- Significant differences in clinical scores, body weight reduction, and TINT time intervals were detected between wild-type and Cd14-deficient mice, indicating strain-related sensitivity.
Conclusions:
- The time to integrate to nest test (TINT) is a practical method for assessing severity in mouse colitis models, particularly for detecting strain-related differences.
- TINT is not sensitive to dose-dependent differences in this specific DSS-colitis model.
- TINT, when performed with consistently group-housed mice (4-5 per cage), can serve as a valuable complementary method to reduce individual animal monitoring.
