The Utility of Grimace Scales for Practical Pain Assessment in Laboratory Animals

Mota-Rojas, Daniel; Olmos-Hernández, Adriana; Verduzco-Mendoza, Antonio; Trujillo, Elein Hernández; Martı́nez-Burnes, Julio; Whittaker, Alexandra L.

doi:10.3390/ani10101838

Cited by 45 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 104 publications

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“…Alternatively, we recorded mice welfare every two days after MERTK +/hi M2c macrophage administration. The mice had remained active with no significant signs of stress or pain, such as squinted eyes, pulled-back ears, nose or cheek bulges, or whisker changes [ 49 ]. On account of the consistency in food consumption and the unchanged activity, we deduced that MERTK +/hi M2c macrophages contributed to the weight reduction in mice in treatment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

MERTK+/hi M2c Macrophages Induced by Baicalin Alleviate Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Júnior

Lai

Nguyen

et al. 2021

IJMS

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Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one of the most common liver diseases worldwide. An accumulation of fat, followed by inflammation, is the major cause of NAFLD progression. During inflammation, macrophages are the most abundant immune cells recruited to the site of injury. Macrophages are classified into “proinflammatory” M1 macrophages, and “anti-inflammatory” M2 macrophages. In NAFLD, M1 macrophages are the most prominent macrophages that lead to an excessive inflammatory response. Previously, we found that baicalin could polarize macrophages into anti-inflammatory M2c subtype macrophages with an increased level of MERTK expression. Several studies have also shown a strong correlation between MERTK expression and cholesterol efflux, efferocytosis, as well as phagocytosis capability. Therefore, in this study, we aim to elucidate the potential and efficacy of mononuclear-cell (MNC)-derived MERTK+/hi M2c macrophages induced by baicalin as a cell-based therapy for NAFLD treatment. In our results, we have demonstrated that a MERTK+/hi M2c macrophage injection to NAFLD mice contributes to an increased level of serum HDL secretion in the liver, a decline in the circulating CD4+CD25− and CD8+CD25− T cells and lowers the total NAFLD pathological score by lessening the inflammation, necrosis, and fibrosis. In the liver, profibrotic COL1A1 and FN, proinflammation TNFα, as well as the regulator of lipid metabolism PPARɣ expression, were also downregulated after injection. In parallel, the transcriptomic profiles of the injected MERTK+/hi M2c macrophages showed that the various genes directly or indirectly involved in NAFLD progression (e.g., SERPINE1, FADS2) were also suppressed. Downregulation of cytokines and inflammation-associated genes, such as CCR5, may promote a pro-resolving milieu in the NAFLD liver. Altogether, cell-based therapy using MERTK+/hi M2c macrophages is promising, as it ameliorates NAFLD in mice.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

MERTK+/hi M2c Macrophages Induced by Baicalin Alleviate Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Júnior

Lai

Nguyen

et al. 2021

IJMS

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“…The understanding of expressions related to stress and pain from indicative facial features is impactful in animal agriculture. Animals used for food production often produce higher quality products when they do not experience unpleasant emotions [19]. The detection of individual animals experiencing stress also allows for the early identification of medical complications.…”

Section: Understanding Animal Emotionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Happy Cow or Thinking Pig? WUR Wolf—Facial Coding Platform for Measuring Emotions in Farm Animals

Neethirajan

2021

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Emotions play an indicative and informative role in the investigation of farm animal behaviors. Systems that respond and can measure emotions provide a natural user interface in enabling the digitalization of animal welfare platforms. The faces of farm animals can be one of the richest channels for expressing emotions. WUR Wolf (Wageningen University & Research: Wolf Mascot), a real-time facial recognition platform that can automatically code the emotions of farm animals, is presented in this study. The developed Python-based algorithms detect and track the facial features of cows and pigs, analyze the appearance, ear postures, and eye white regions, and correlate these with the mental/emotional states of the farm animals. The system is trained on a dataset of facial features of images of farm animals collected in over six farms and has been optimized to operate with an average accuracy of 85%. From these, the emotional states of animals in real time are determined. The software detects 13 facial actions and an inferred nine emotional states, including whether the animal is aggressive, calm, or neutral. A real-time emotion recognition system based on YoloV3, a Faster YoloV4-based facial detection platform and an ensemble Convolutional Neural Networks (RCNN) is presented. Detecting facial features of farm animals simultaneously in real time enables many new interfaces for automated decision-making tools for livestock farmers. Emotion sensing offers a vast potential for improving animal welfare and animal–human interactions.

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“…Identifying facial expressions in animals has been relevant [ 1 , 2 ] since Darwin [ 3 ] stated that non-human animals can create innate expressions adaptable to each species. However, its purpose is still debatable.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Whether they function as a non-verbal language to maintain social structure or to convey emotional states (neurophysiological changes associated with the recognition of pleasant and unpleasant emotions), in this sense, both emotional states and facial expressions require the integration of peripheral, autonomic, endocrine, and muscular responses, which involve the activation of various brain structures (i.e., the amygdala, hypothalamus, and brainstem) [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ]. The understanding of the interaction between these responses and its neural pathways has led to studying facial expressions as a way to assess animal welfare through the identification of pain or stressful states in horses [ 8 , 9 ], sheep [ 10 , 11 ], laboratory animals [ 2 ], cows [ 12 ] and pigs [ 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Current Advances in Assessment of Dog’s Emotions, Facial Expressions, and Their Use for Clinical Recognition of Pain

Mota-Rojas

Marcet-Rius

Ogi

et al. 2021

Animals

Self Cite

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Animals’ facial expressions are involuntary responses that serve to communicate the emotions that individuals feel. Due to their close co-existence with humans, broad attention has been given to identifying these expressions in certain species, especially dogs. This review aims to analyze and discuss the advances in identifying the facial expressions of domestic dogs and their clinical utility in recognizing pain as a method to improve daily practice and, in an accessible and effective way, assess the health outcome of dogs. This study focuses on aspects related to the anatomy and physiology of facial expressions in dogs, their emotions, and evaluations of their eyebrows, eyes, lips, and ear positions as changes that reflect pain or nociception. In this regard, research has found that dogs have anatomical configurations that allow them to generate changes in their expressions that similar canids—wolves, for example—cannot produce. Additionally, dogs can perceive emotions similar to those of their human tutors due to close human-animal interaction. This phenomenon—called “emotional contagion”—is triggered precisely by the dog’s capacity to identify their owners’ gestures and then react by emitting responses with either similar or opposed expressions that correspond to positive or negative stimuli, respectively. In conclusion, facial expressions are essential to maintaining social interaction between dogs and other species, as in their bond with humans. Moreover, this provides valuable information on emotions and the perception of pain, so in dogs, they can serve as valuable elements for recognizing and evaluating pain in clinical settings.

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The Utility of Grimace Scales for Practical Pain Assessment in Laboratory Animals

Cited by 45 publications

References 104 publications

MERTK+/hi M2c Macrophages Induced by Baicalin Alleviate Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

MERTK+/hi M2c Macrophages Induced by Baicalin Alleviate Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Happy Cow or Thinking Pig? WUR Wolf—Facial Coding Platform for Measuring Emotions in Farm Animals

Current Advances in Assessment of Dog’s Emotions, Facial Expressions, and Their Use for Clinical Recognition of Pain

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