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VARIABILITY IN THE PREWEANLING ONTOGENY OF MOTOR ACTIVITY IN RATS: INFLUENCE OF DEVICE, TEST DAY, AND RAT SUPPLIER.
Citation:
Moser, V C. AND P. M. Phillips. VARIABILITY IN THE PREWEANLING ONTOGENY OF MOTOR ACTIVITY IN RATS: INFLUENCE OF DEVICE, TEST DAY, AND RAT SUPPLIER. Presented at Neurobehavioral Teratology Society, Scottsdale, AZ, 6/23-26/2002.
Description:
Current developmental neurotoxicity testing guidelines include evaluation of preweanling motor activity in rats. The ontogeny of activity levels as well as within-session habituation may be measured by repeatedly testing subjects at specific days of age. Activity levels are influenced by the strain and stock of rat, as well as the activity device used. In this study we tested untreated male and female rat pups to document differences in the ontogeny of activity related to the source of rat, activity device, and precise day of testing. Sprague-Dawley rats from either Charles River Laboratories or Taconic Farms were tested on either postnatal days 12, 16, and 20, or else 13, 17, and 21 using figure-8 chambers. In addition, Taconic Farm rats were tested in a cage-rack system on days 13, 17, and 21. Clear device differences were observed in terms of total activity counts across the days, with the figure-8 system showing greater and more consistent changes in activity levels. Generally there were few differences between the rat stocks or gender in activity levels across days. The development of within-session habituation with repeated testing was evident regardless of rat stock, gender, or device.
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