Behavioral coping with chronic defeat stress in mice: A systematic review of current protocols.

Social stress is the most significant source of chronic stress in humans and is commonly associated with health impairment. Individual differences in the behavioral coping responses to stress have been proposed to mediate the negative effects of stress on physical, behavioral and mental health. Animal models, particularly mice, offer valuable insights into the physiological and neurobiological correlates of behavioral coping strategies in response to chronic social stress.

Systemic Tumors Can Cause Molecular Changes in the Hippocampus That May Have an Impact on Behavior after Chronic Social Stress.

Evidence indicates that chronic social stress plays a significant role in the development of cancer and depression. Although their association is recognized, the precise physiological mechanism remains unknown. In our previous work, we observed that OF1 males subjected to chronic social defiance exhibited anhedonia, and those who developed tumors in the lung showed anxiety-associated behaviors.

Chronic defeat stress induces monoamine level dysregulation in the prefrontal cortex but not in the hippocampus of OF1 male mice.

Chronic social stress can increase susceptibility to chronic diseases such as depression. One of the most used models to study the physiological mechanisms and behavioral outcomes of this type of stress is chronic defeat stress (CDS) in male mice. OF1 male mice were subjected to a stress period lasting 18 days.

The role of sociability in social instability stress: Behavioral, neuroendocrine and monoaminergic effects.

Extensive literature has reported a link between social stress and mental health. In this complex relationship, individual strategies for coping with social stress are thought to have a possible modulating effect, with sociability being a key factor. Despite the higher incidence of affective disorders in females and sex-related neurochemical differences, female populations have been understudied.

Individualized Housing Modifies the Immune-Endocrine System in CD1 Adult Male Mice.

In the last years, different research groups have made considerable efforts to improve the care and use of animals in research. Mice () are the most widely used animal species in research in the European Union and are sociable and hierarchical creatures. During experiments, researchers tend to individualize males, but no consideration is given to whether this social isolation causes them stress.

Refinement in the European Union: A Systematic Review.

Refining experiments and housing conditions so as to cause the minimum possible pain and distress is one of the three principles (3Rs) on which Directive 2010/63/EU is based. In this systematic review, we aimed to identify and summarize published advances in the refinement protocols made by European Union-based research groups from 2011 to 2021, and to determine whether or not said research was supported by European or national grants. We included 48 articles, the majority of which were related to improvements in experimental procedures (37/77.