Corticosterone, adrenal and spleen weight in mice after tail bleeding, and its effect on nearby animals

Abstract

SummaryExperiments were performed in mice to study if stress was involved in tail bleeding and to investigate any transmittable signal at killing. A second study looked at the time taken to recover from stress elicited by these procedures. Corticosterone levels were significantly higher.in mice immediately after the completion of tail bleeding than in control mice (P<0.05) suggesting that tail bleeding in mice was stressful. This study did not show any evidence for an odour or sound being released during killing or tail bleeding as there was no significant effect on corticosterone levels in mice present in the same room at the time these procedures were carried out. Corticosterone levels in mice killed on days I, 3, and 7 after tail bleeding were significantly lower (P<O.OS) than the average corticosterone level in tail blood on day I, indicating that mice recovered within 24 h from the stress of tail bleeding.

The effect of isoflurane anaesthesia and vasectomy on circulating corticosterone and ACTH in BALB/c mice

“…An increase in serum corticosterone can usually be seen within five minutes after a stressful event, and corticosterone reaches a peak about 15 min after initiation of the stimulus [20,24,76]. The half life of serum corticosterone is approximately 10 min [85], and serum corticosterone usually returns to baseline levels within few hours after the stress exposure [77].…”

The impact of immunomodulator compound from the group of substituted thiadiazines on the course of stress reaction

“…However, it was recently shown that this practice is actually quite stressful [99] to the animal and can influence the parameters measured, including hormone levels [100]. In fact, taking a blood sample from the tail vein can even affect the corticosterone level in an animal [101]. Taking this into account, it seems that several blood sample retrieval methods should be used in any one experiment, and that the measurements should be averaged afterwards.…”

Frequent serial fecal corticoid measures from rats reflect circadian and ovarian corticosterone rhythms

“…Given this highly adaptive sensitivity, measuring hypothalamicpituitary-adrenal axis function in undisturbed subjects can be problematic, particularly in small laboratory rodents. The simple act of handling, restraining, or collecting a blood sample from the tail vein in small rodents can significantly elevate glucocorticoid levels within minutes (Smith & Gala 1977, Tuli et al 1995, Haemisch et al 1999. Thus, even mildly invasive repeated sampling limits studies on the temporal secretory dynamics of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis as they normally occur in the absence of human contact.…”