00A0142 - Enviromental, Behavior, and Reproduction in Rats - Randy Nelson - Pain Code = 2D

The protocol title sounds pretty innocent. Our anticipation was that this was something similiar to a field study only it would be performed in the lab. The goal "is to develop a more comprehensive model of the regulation of seasonal breeding in rodents." The animals approved for use were 320 deer mice, 320 prairie voles, and 240 siberian hamsters. For the past years the P.I. has been studying the effects of day length on reproduction in Siberian hamsters. The study claims that the studies would be relevant to human seasonal cycles in brain and behavior. Human studies have contributed the most toward understanding seasonal cycles and human behavior, reproduction, and disease.

Our view of this slowly changed as the numbers of animals being used in the project increased rather quickly. An amendment approved in August 2001 noted that the P.I. had "inadvertently neglected to include breeding pairs" in the count. The request is for 160 Meadow voles or 160 Southern red-backed voles. The additional voles are selected because they inhabit a wider latitudinal niche than the Siberian hamster.

"We are requesting permission to work with 160 individuals of two species of vole, but we only expect to conduct the actual experiments in one of the two species. Our plan is to trap wild individuals of both species and breed them in the lab. Whichever one of these species adapts better to laboratory rearing conditions (i.e., breeds better in captivity) will be used as our model species."

The approved number becomes 200 animals, with the breeders and unwanted progeny being euthanized by carbon dioxide inhalation.

Another amendment also approved in August 2001 adds 40 Siberian hamsters.

October 2001 another 40 Siberian hamsters are approved for use with some procedural changes to the protocol.

In November a request comes into ILACUC to amend the protocol because a post-doc individual in their lab needs to collect pilot data on gene expression in the brains of several different mammalian species. The note back to the P.I. asks, which protocol to amend? It appears that 00A0142 was chosen.

3 Syrian (Golden) Hamsters
3 Rats
3 Guinea Pigs
3 Rabbits
6 White-footed Mice
6 Deer Mice

Upon arrival at OSU each animal will be euthanized via decapitation with a mechanical guillotine. Decapitation is being used in lieu of CO2 or sodium pentobarbital because latter procedures may induce rapid changes in gene expression which could obsure experimental observations. Approval is received in February 2002.

One type of automatic guillotine

In December 2001, another amendment comes into ILACUC which plans to add 3,200 Siberian hamsters. The ILACUC response requests further information: "University Laboratory Animal Resources (ULAR) records indicate that you have used more than hamsters (743) than have been approved and that you may be maintaining a breeding colony. If this is so, provide a detailed description of your breeding program to include a justification of all hamsters to be used in the experiments outlined in this protocol."

The number of hamsters approved from February 2002 to October 2003 became 3,200. The numbers are broken down as per year:
20 males Founders of breeding pairs
20 females Founders of breeding pairs
60 male pups Returned to breeding colony
60 female pups Returned to breeding colony
80 females Used as stimuli for male tests
900 males Used in main protocol
820 females Euthanized
1960 Total hamsters/year

It is noted in the P.I. response the following: "I have removed 40 animals from the LD50 study which should be covered in an approved amendment to another protocol." 00A0091 - Photoperiodic Effects On Immune Function.

In February 2002, the P.I., Randy Nelson publishes a paper, Symptoms of Illness Less Severe In Hamsters During Winter.

May 2002 bring another amendment and ILACUC approval for an additional 380 mice. The protocol also moves in another direction, looking at mice and stress, how a viral enzyme can alter behavior in rodents. Is this work now beginning to sound familiar?

The mice will be in restraint stress for a period of 3 hours each day during lights on for 14 days. Social Reorganization Stress and Social Disruption will also be a type of stress given to the mice. As a reminder Social Disruption places an "aggressive intruder into a cage of 3-5 mice. Only intruders that initiate attacks within 5 minutes and show consistent aggressive attacks toward the resident mice will be used. During SDR, the aggressor is expected to start attacking the cage residents within 5-10 minutes. If one or more of the residents should attack the intruder, it will be replaced with a new intruder." The addition of these procedures should move the pain code of the protocol to "E". It is currently not known if that change has taken place.

October 2002, 108 hamsters are approved with a procedural change to "manipulate the hamsters' light-dark cycle in such a fashion that the animals are exposed to constant darkness for approx. 30 weeks. We have requested a copy of the veterinarian observation and will update this article upon it's receipt.

Our view is to show how the approval process works at the OSU ILACUC and how a protocol changes during it's life. The number of animals approved for this one study is approaching nearly 5,000 mice, voles, and hamsters.

The protocol is funded via The National Institute of Health.

=============================== UPDATE 10/23/03 =======================================

An amendment to this protocol was approved June 2003 to add 32 hamsters and new behavioral tests. These behavioral tests are also being added to a number of Nelson/DeVries protocols. The tests are:

• Startle Response - a measure of affective state. Placed in a restraint tube the hamster is to a sound or pulse to startle the animal, depending upon location in the tube.
• Passive Avoidance - a test of memory.
• Elevated Maze - Hamsters avoid open spaces when given an alternative choice of an enclosed space, and this effect is enhanced when a hamster can perceive a vertical drop. Time spent in the enclosed arms of the apparatus correlates negatively with anxiety.
• Porsoit Forced-swim Test - measures depressive-like changes in effect following experimental manipulations.amsters swim quite well, and when they become immobile in water, they float.
• Latent Learning Test - measures spatial learning in the absence of reinforcers.

The swim test is considered stressful and the restraint associated with the startle test may induce stress. All hamsters are killed when behavioral tests are complete.

Just as an FYI many of the details for the tests were blanked out as the investigator and OSU deemed them to be trade secrets.

====== And more updates in August 2003 as Nelson passes the 3rd year mark of this study.
240 deer mice have been added to the protocol. A laser-Doppler device will now be used to measure blood flow and will be used for comparisons among the different experimantal groups.

February 2004 and 240 additioanl hamsters are approved for use in this experiment.

NEW! Published work - MICE BRAINS SHRINK DURING WINTER, IMPAIRING SOME LEARNING AND MEMORY

This amazing discovery hit the front page of the Columbus Dispatch, May 25, 2005. The Dispatch subtitle is Explanation for Winter Depression? Don't we already alot about winter depression from actual human subjects? Yes, we do.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) has treatments. Furthermore, this could be done without locking humans in a dark room and dissecting their brains. fMRI can check changes in function during summer and winter, during activity and no activity, and other scans can count brain cells. It would just take longer--you'd have to wait for winter.

And lots of your tax dollars are spent on these experiments.

UPDATE: July 2004 - A new species moves into the laboratory. 140 voles were approved for use to continue studies on seasonal immune responses in high amd low latitude voles.

Further amendments 2005 - Note with this amendment that the experiment becomes similiar to the study in protocol 00A0091.

September 2005 approval for 320 hamsters. Why? "We have established that photoperiod affects mood. This is relevant to patients with SAD. We seek to investigate the efficacy of fluoxetine (Prozac) on photoperiod-mediated changes in mood."

Maybe Nelson and the other people in his lab should go read the human studies. The following is from a website found with a google search on the words fluoxetine and SAD. Again OSU and its animal researchers are doing nothing to actually help people. But they sure are bringing in loads of taxpayer money while they kill hundreds of animals.

January 30, 2002
The best evidence for the treatment of SAD with medications is for the SSRIs. Large studies have shown fluoxetine (Prozac) and sertraline (Zoloft) to be effective, and there is no reason to think that the other medications in this family would not be equally effective. http://counseling.uchicago.edu/vpc/uchicago/sads.html

Updated 1/30/06