3 Minute 3rs January 2020

3 Minute 3Rs

The January 2020 episode of 3 Minute 3Rs, brought to you by the NC3Rs (www.nc3rs.org.uk), the North American 3Rs Collaborative (www.na3rsc.org), and Lab Animal (www.nature.com/laban).Papers:1. https://doi.org/10.15252/embr.2019497092. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-56860-73. https://doi.org/10.1177/0023677219879455[NC3Rs] Academic scientists produce many of the clever ideas which end up as medicines. However, the results in the papers reporting the work are almost always positive, and null or negative results rarely get a look in – a phenomenon known as publication bias. This is problematic as the negative or null data could be useful to other researchers. It can also lead to a culture of striving for positive results, potentially increasing poor experimental design or the inappropriate use of statistics. Overall this contributes to the so-called ‘reproducibility crisis’ and means that animals are used in studies that are not correctly designed to demonstrate an effect. In response to this, scientists at the German Centre for the Protection of Laboratory Animals have set up a global ‘Animal Studies Registry’ where a researcher can preregister their study and following completion the Registry is updated with the results. This publicly accessible database allows scrutiny of the planning and execution of animal studies. The Registry could become an important addition to the preregistration landscape - time will demonstrate the impact this can have on reproducibility and the use of animals in research. You can read more about the registry in this month’s EMBO Reports via the link in the description. [LA] Next, how do you handle your mice? There’s growing evidence that picking up the animals with cupped hands or a tunnel is less aversive than picking them up by the tail, but mice still need to be familiarized with the process. Across an entire animal facility, that time can add up. What’s practical? Kelly Gouveia and Jane Hurst from the University of Liverpool have some suggestions. They recently evaluated BALBc mice handled by the tail, cupped hands, or a tunnel in three experiments: the first looked at the impact of holding duration; the second, the frequency of handling; and the third, responses to repeated immobilization for necessities such as subcutaneous injections. Tunnels rose to the top. Mice became familiar with tunnel handling from use during routine animal husbandry – a couple seconds each cage change was sufficient, and tunnel-acclimated animals remained less stressed than their tail-handled peers, even after the repeated immobilizations,. For all the details, see the publication in the Journal Scientific Reports. And finally, let’s hit the wheel running with another refinement. [NA3RsC] Objectively measuring well-being in laboratory mice can be challenging. In a study published in the journal Laboratory Animals, voluntary wheel running behavior was evaluated as a measure of discomfort and disease severity in a mouse model of human Inflammatory Bowel Disease. While voluntary wheel running has been successfully used to assess severity levels in singly housed mice, mice are social animals. Here, voluntary wheel running was assessed in group housed mice undergoing DSS-induced colitis and in group housed mice that underwent a blood collection procedure at 3 different time points throughout the study. While a there was a significant reduction in wheel running and body weight, and a significant elevation in histological scores as disease severity increased, there were few signs of disturbed well-being based on clinical scores alone. Wheel running was also decreased in mice that underwent blood collection while other measures remained unaffected. This study suggests that voluntary wheel running may be a sensitive and suitable tool for individual severity assessment in group housed mice and offers a refinement to welfare by enabling social housing

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