Antibody response and some behaviors as differential traits between two inbred strains of mice (C57BL/6 and BALB/c)

The goals of this research were to find out if the antibody response and some behaviors are differential traits for murine strains C57BL/6 and BALB/c and to study the influence of strain and isolation on both behavior and the antibody response. 21 C57BL/6 male mice and 28 BALB/c male mice were used; of those, 11 C57BL/6 and 16 BALB/c were kept isolated, and the remaining mice were housed 2 per cage. The tests were Open-fields 1, 2, and 3 (of varying light and sound stimulation), holeboard, light-darkness test, immunization with rat erythrocytes; in addition, the mice were weighed. The traits that best differentiated both strains (according to discriminant analysis) were weight, IgM primary response, and emotional behavior (ambulation, rearing, and defecation in stimulating open-fields). Social isolation (of adult mice) influenced emotional behavior, but not the antibody response.