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    A systematic review of the development and application of home cage monitoring in laboratory mice and rats (2023)

    Art
    Zeitschriftenartikel / wissenschaftlicher Beitrag
    Autoren
    Kahnau, Pia
    Mieske, Paul (WE 11)
    Wilzopolski, Jenny
    Kalliokoski, Otto
    Mandillo, Silvia
    Hölter, Sabine M.
    Voikar, Vootele
    Amfim, Adriana
    Badurek, Sylvia
    Bartelik, Aleksandra
    Caruso, Angela
    Čater, Maša
    Ey, Elodie
    Golini, Elisabetta
    Jaap, Anne (WE 11)
    Hrncic, Dragan
    Kiryk, Anna
    Lang, Benjamin (WE 11)
    Loncarevic-Vasiljkovic, Natasa
    Meziane, Hamid
    Radzevičienė, Aurelija
    Rivalan, Marion
    Scattoni, Maria Luisa
    Torquet, Nicolas
    Trifkovic, Julijana
    Ulfhake, Brun
    Thöne-Reineke, Christa (WE 11)
    Diederich, Kai
    Lewejohann, Lars (WE 11)
    Hohlbaum, Katharina
    Quelle
    BMC biology
    Bandzählung: 21
    Heftzählung: 1
    Seiten: Article number: 256
    ISSN: 1741-7007
    Sprache
    Englisch
    Verweise
    URL (Volltext): https://bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12915-023-01751-7
    DOI: 10.1186/s12915-023-01751-7
    Pubmed: 37953247
    Kontakt
    Institut für Tierschutz, Tierverhalten und Versuchstierkunde

    Königsweg 67
    14163 Berlin
    +49 30 838 61146
    tierschutz@vetmed.fu-berlin.de

    Abstract / Zusammenfassung

    Background
    Traditionally, in biomedical animal research, laboratory rodents are individually examined in test apparatuses outside of their home cages at selected time points. However, the outcome of such tests can be influenced by various factors and valuable information may be missed when the animals are only monitored for short periods. These issues can be overcome by longitudinally monitoring mice and rats in their home cages. To shed light on the development of home cage monitoring (HCM) and the current state-of-the-art, a systematic review was carried out on 521 publications retrieved through PubMed and Web of Science.

    Results
    Both the absolute (~ × 26) and relative (~ × 7) number of HCM-related publications increased from 1974 to 2020. There was a clear bias towards males and individually housed animals, but during the past decade (2011–2020), an increasing number of studies used both sexes and group housing. In most studies, animals were kept for short (up to 4 weeks) time periods in the HCM systems; intermediate time periods (4–12 weeks) increased in frequency in the years between 2011 and 2020. Before the 2000s, HCM techniques were predominantly applied for less than 12 h, while 24-h measurements have been more frequent since the 2000s. The systematic review demonstrated that manual monitoring is decreasing in relation to automatic techniques but still relevant. Until (and including) the 1990s, most techniques were applied manually but have been progressively replaced by automation since the 2000s. Independent of the year of publication, the main behavioral parameters measured were locomotor activity, feeding, and social behaviors; the main physiological parameters were heart rate and electrocardiography. External appearance-related parameters were rarely examined in the home cages. Due to technological progress and application of artificial intelligence, more refined and detailed behavioral parameters have been investigated in the home cage more recently.

    Conclusions
    Over the period covered in this study, techniques for HCM of mice and rats have improved considerably. This development is ongoing and further progress as well as validation of HCM systems will extend the applications to allow for continuous, longitudinal, non-invasive monitoring of an increasing range of parameters in group-housed small rodents in their home cages.