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A refinement to the formalin test in mice
- Source :
- F1000Research
- Publication Year :
- 2019
- Publisher :
- F1000 Research Ltd, 2019.
-
Abstract
- The constant refinement of tests used in animal research is crucial for the scientific community. This is particularly true for the field of pain research, where ethical standards are notably sensitive. The formalin test is widely used in pain research and some of its mechanisms resemble those underlying clinical pain in humans. Immediately upon injection, formalin triggers two waves (an early and a late phase) of strong, nociceptive behaviour, characterised by licking, biting, lifting and shaking the injected paw of the animal. Although well characterised at the behaviour level, since its proposal over four decades ago, there has not been any significant refinement to the formalin test, especially those combining minimisation of animal distress and preservation of behavioural outcomes of the test. Here, we propose a modified and improved method for the formalin test. We show that anaesthetising the animal with the inhalable anaesthetic sevoflurane at the time of the injection can produce reliable, robust and reproducible results whilst animal distress during the initial phase is reduced. Importantly, our results were validated by pharmacological suppression of the behaviour during the late phase of the test with gabapentin, the anaesthetic showing no interference with the drug. In addition, we demonstrate that this is also a useful method to screen for changes in pain behaviour in response to formalin in transgenic lines.
- Subjects :
- Nociception
0301 basic medicine
Formalin Test
Gabapentin
Pain
Sevoflurane
General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
3Rs
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
medicine
Transgenic lines
Behaviour
General Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics
030304 developmental biology
0303 health sciences
General Immunology and Microbiology
business.industry
Articles
General Medicine
Method Article
Refinement
Formalin
Biting
030104 developmental biology
Initial phase
Anesthesia
business
Licking
030217 neurology & neurosurgery
medicine.drug
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 20461402
- Volume :
- 8
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- F1000Research
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....04ea53f5c751383c098308d3cf7d47bc