02A0062 - Social Effects On Wound Healing - A. Courtney DeVries - Pain Code = 3E

260 Siberian Hamsters have been approved for use in this study.

The goal of the study is to determine the effects of positive social interaction on wound healing in hamsters by suppressing stress hormones. The hypothesis is that positive social interaction leads to suppression of the hypothalamin-pituitary-adrenal axis and improved wound healing.

Experiment 1
Hamster groupings are single, paired, single stress, and paired stress The hamsters receive a cutaneous wound. The wounds are photographed during a brief restraint. The hamsters in the stress group will be in restraint, in a plexiglas tube (1.5 in diameter and 4 in. in length) for 2 hours per day for 12 days. The tubes are large enough that the animal can turn around. Restraint is being used as a stressor so the animals do not receive preconditioning.

Experiment 2
Oxytocin (OT), a hormone released in response to positive social contact, will be used in this experiment. Hamster groups are single-saline, single-OT, paired-saline, paired-OT antagonist, single stress saline, single stress-OT, paired stress-OT antagonist, and paired stress saline. The scenario is the same as experiment 1, however some hamsters receive OT.

Experiment 3
The adrenal gland is removed (ADX) from some of the hamsters. Hamster groupings are SHAM-ADX, ADX, SHAM-stress, and ADX-Stress.

Experimental hamsters are killed at the end of all experiments.

The question remains does science have to use animals to find the answer? And no matter what is learned how does it help people?. Currently there is a study being conducted at OSU using students and wound healing. More will be learned from that study then from stressing, removing adrenal glands, and killing hamsters!

And she publishes by saying that "friends help wounds help faster"

The article starts with by saying "new research in hamsters now suggests that without companionship, wounds on the animals don't heal as fast."

So those of you at home with hamsters be sure your companion hamster has a friend. :-)

"Researchers looked at the effect social contact had on wound healing in stressed hamsters. Results showed that skin wounds healed nearly twice as fast in the hamsters paired with a sibling. These animals also produced less of the stress hormone cortisol than unpaired hamsters."

Is this really something we didn't already know? Waste waste waste. Funding to conduct this experiment was provide by The Ohio State University.