Cage enrichment with paper tissue, but not plastic tunnels, increases variability in mouse model of asthma

Lab Anim. 2011 Apr;45(2):121-3. doi: 10.1258/la.2010.010109. Epub 2010 Dec 15.

Abstract

Environmental enrichment, besides having a great impact on animal welfare, can also be a potential variable in experimental research. Thus, we investigated whether enrichment of cages with paper tissues or plastic tunnels affects scientific outcome in the well-described mouse model of allergic asthma. BALB/cJ mice were introduced to paper tissues as nesting material, transparent plastic tunnels serving as shelters or kept in non-enriched cages. Afterwards, mice were sensitized to chicken egg ovalbumin (OVA) precipitated in aluminium sulphate and then intranasally challenged with OVA to induce allergic lung inflammation. Mice housed in cages enriched with paper tissues, but not with plastic tunnels, had increased total cell number, eosinophil number and IL-13 concentration in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid in comparison with the non-enriched control group. These results indicate that the effect of environmental enrichment on mice asthma models depends on the type of enrichment used. Therefore, it is important to consider the potential effects of any environmental enrichment on animal welfare and more importantly, on research results in order to standardize and obtain more accurate data from rodent studies.

MeSH terms

  • Administration, Intranasal
  • Animal Husbandry / methods*
  • Animals
  • Asthma / immunology*
  • Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid / cytology*
  • Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid / immunology
  • Disease Models, Animal
  • Environment Design
  • Eosinophils / metabolism
  • Interleukin-13 / analysis
  • Interleukin-13 / metabolism
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred BALB C
  • Ovalbumin / administration & dosage
  • Ovalbumin / immunology
  • Paper
  • Plastics
  • Pneumonia / immunology*
  • Reproducibility of Results

Substances

  • Interleukin-13
  • Plastics
  • Ovalbumin