TY - JOUR

T1 - Minimum information about animal experiments

T2 - supplier is also important

AU - Lonjon, Nicolas

AU - Prieto, Monica

AU - Haton, Henri

AU - Brøchner, Christian Beltoft

AU - Bauchet, Luc

AU - Costalat, Vincent

AU - Privat, Alain

AU - Gaviria, Manuel

AU - Perrin, Florence E

N1 - 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

PY - 2009/2

Y1 - 2009/2

N2 - It has now been established that functional recovery after spinal cord injury (SCI) depends on several parameters, including animal strain. Here we demonstrate that rats from the same strain (Wistar) but from two independent commercial suppliers present different motor, sensory, and autonomic outcomes after a standard model of SCI, the so-called compression model. Recovery is correlated with the extension of the lesion, and we show that the vertebral canal diameter varies between the two suppliers. To substantiate this point, we carried out another set of experiments, with the so-called contusion model, which requires bone ablation and thus whose extension is not related to vertebral canal diameter. We show that there is no difference between the two suppliers. The purpose of our communication is to alert researchers on how crucial it is to control experimental parameters as closely as possible and to establish a standard for animal experiment in order to avoid unexpected biases.

AB - It has now been established that functional recovery after spinal cord injury (SCI) depends on several parameters, including animal strain. Here we demonstrate that rats from the same strain (Wistar) but from two independent commercial suppliers present different motor, sensory, and autonomic outcomes after a standard model of SCI, the so-called compression model. Recovery is correlated with the extension of the lesion, and we show that the vertebral canal diameter varies between the two suppliers. To substantiate this point, we carried out another set of experiments, with the so-called contusion model, which requires bone ablation and thus whose extension is not related to vertebral canal diameter. We show that there is no difference between the two suppliers. The purpose of our communication is to alert researchers on how crucial it is to control experimental parameters as closely as possible and to establish a standard for animal experiment in order to avoid unexpected biases.

KW - Animal Experimentation

KW - Animals

KW - Biomedical Research

KW - Disease Models, Animal

KW - Rats

KW - Rats, Wistar

KW - Recovery of Function

KW - Spinal Cord Injuries

U2 - 10.1002/jnr.21871

DO - 10.1002/jnr.21871

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 18798282

VL - 87

SP - 403

EP - 407

JO - Journal of Neuroscience Research

JF - Journal of Neuroscience Research

SN - 0360-4012

IS - 2

ER -