CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 130Stress Responses and CortisolAdrenal Hormones and DisordersAnimal Behavior and Welfare Studies

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 31 of the 32 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Non-invasive measurement of adrenocortical activity in male and female rats

Lepschy, M, Touma, C, Hruby, R, Palme, R·2007·Laboratory Animals
DOI 10.1258/002367707781282730
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Rats are widely used in biomedical research as animal models for human diseases. However, due to their small body size, blood sampling is complicated and invasive and thereby can seriously interfere with endocrine functions and possibly compromise the animals' welfare. Therefore, a non-invasive technique to monitor stress hormones in these animals is highly desired. Our study aimed to gain general information about corticosterone metabolism and excretion and to validate a 5 α-pregnane-3 β,11 β,21-triol-20-one enzyme immunoassay (EIA) to reliably measure faecal corticosterone metabolites (CMs) in laboratory rats. In total, 18 rats were administered 2.3 MBq of 3 H-corticosterone intravenously and per os, respectively (intravenous: 6 males and 6 females; per os: 3 males and 3 females). Subsequently, all voided excreta were frequently collected for five days. About 75±9% of the recovered CMs were found in the faeces. Peak concentrations of radiolabelled steroids appeared in the urine after 1.7±0.6 h in males and after 6.0±3.5 h in females. In faeces, maxima were observed after 14.7±2.4 h in both sexes. In principle, the time course and delay for both routes of administration (intravenous or per os) were the same, except for a delay of peak concentrations in urine (4.5±2.1 h) in per os administered males. Using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), faecal 3 H-CMs were characterized and differences were found between the sexes. In both sexes, corticosterone was extensively metabolized, but while males showed only minor variations in their CM patterns, those of females differed largely between individuals. To validate the mentioned EIA, we investigated the diurnal variation (DV) of glucocorticoids as well as effects of the injection procedure itself and conducted an adrenocorticotropic hormone challenge test and a dexamethasone suppression test, using six male and six female rats each. Our results demonstrated that pharmacological stimulation, suppression and DV of adrenocortical activity were accurately reflected by means of CM measurement in faeces. By successful physiological validation, we proved for the first time the suitability of an immunoassay to non-invasively monitor adrenocortical activity in rats of both sexes. This method opens up new perspectives for biomedical and pharmacological investigations as well as for animal welfare related issues.

Overview

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1258/002367707781282730

Cites

31 of 31 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Citations

Cites

Show all 32 references

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Items 101–130 of 130

Related

See all

Metadata

Authors
Lepschy, M., Touma, C., Hruby, R., & Palme, R.
Affiliations
  • University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna (AT)
  • Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry (DE)
  • AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH (AT)
ORCID
Palme, R
Venue
Laboratory Animals
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Published
2007-07-01
Volume
41
Issue
3
Pages
372-387
ISSN
  • 0023-6772 (ISSN-L)
  • 1758-1117
DOI
10.1258/002367707781282730
OpenAlex
W2169811566
Cited by
129
References
32
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 11
FWCI
3.22
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license (tdm)
Locations
  • Laboratory Animals (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism › Adrenal Hormones and Disorders
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Animal Science and Zoology › Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies
Keywords
adrenocortical function, non-invasive hormone measurement, corticosterone metabolism, enzyme immunoassay validation, sex differences, dexamethasone suppression test, rats, stress hormones, immunoassay interference
MeSH terms
Administration, Oral, Adrenal Cortex, Adrenocorticotropic Hormone, Animals, Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid, Circadian Rhythm, Corticosterone, Dexamethasone, Feces, Female, Immunoenzyme Techniques, Injections, Intravenous, Male, Rats, Inbred F344, Sex Factors, Tritium, Rats

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review