Zoonoses and Other Human Health Hazards

The microbiological quality of experimental animals can critically influence animal welfare and the validity and reproducibility of research data. It is therefore important for breeding and experimental facilities to establish a laboratory animal health monitoring (HM) programme as an integrated part of any quality assurance system. FELASA has published recommendations for the HM of rodent and rabbit colonies in breeding and experimental units (Nicklas et al. Laboratory Animals, 2002), with the intention of harmonizing HM programmes. As stated in the preamble, these recommendations need to be adapted periodically to meet current developments in laboratory animal medicine. Accordingly, previous recommendations have been revised and shall be replaced by the present recommendations. These recommendations are aimed at all breeders and users of laboratory mice, rats, Syrian hamsters, guinea pigs and rabbits as well as diagnostic laboratories. They describe essential aspects of HM, such as the choice of agents, selection of animals and tissues for testing, frequency of sampling, commonly used test methods, interpretation of results and HM reporting. Compared with previous recommendations, more emphasis is put on the role of a person with sufficient understanding of the principles of HM, opportunistic agents, the use of sentinel animals (particularly under conditions of cage-level containment) and the interpretation and reporting of HM results. Relevant agents, testing frequencies and literature references are updated. Supplementary information on specific agents and the number of animals to be monitored and an example of a HM programme description is provided in the appendices.

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Dopaminergic Neuromodulation of Spike Timing Dependent Plasticity in Mature Adult Rodent and Human Cortical Neurons

Louth

Jørgensen

Korshoej

et al. 2021

Front. Cell. Neurosci.

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Synapses in the cerebral cortex constantly change and this dynamic property regulated by the action of neuromodulators such as dopamine (DA), is essential for reward learning and memory. DA modulates spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP), a cellular model of learning and memory, in juvenile rodent cortical neurons. However, it is unknown whether this neuromodulation also occurs at excitatory synapses of cortical neurons in mature adult mice or in humans. Cortical layer V pyramidal neurons were recorded with whole cell patch clamp electrophysiology and an extracellular stimulating electrode was used to induce STDP. DA was either bath-applied or optogenetically released in slices from mice. Classical STDP induction protocols triggered non-hebbian excitatory synaptic depression in the mouse or no plasticity at human cortical synapses. DA reverted long term synaptic depression to baseline in mouse via dopamine 2 type receptors or elicited long term synaptic potentiation in human cortical synapses. Furthermore, when DA was applied during an STDP protocol it depressed presynaptic inhibition in the mouse but not in the human cortex. Thus, DA modulates excitatory synaptic plasticity differently in human vs. mouse cortex. The data strengthens the importance of DA in gating cognition in humans, and may inform on therapeutic interventions to recover brain function from diseases.

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Zoonoses and Other Human Health Hazards

Cited by 3 publications

References 185 publications

Health Monitoring Programmes and International Standards

Health Monitoring Programmes and International Standards

FELASA recommendations for the health monitoring of mouse, rat, hamster, guinea pig and rabbit colonies in breeding and experimental units

Dopaminergic Neuromodulation of Spike Timing Dependent Plasticity in Mature Adult Rodent and Human Cortical Neurons

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