Record Details
Ulcerative Dermatitis in C57BL/6 Mice
ScholarsArchive at Oregon State University
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Title | Ulcerative Dermatitis in C57BL/6 Mice |
| Names |
Sargent, Jennifer L.
(creator) Diggs, Helen E. (advisor) |
| Date Issued | 2015-06-02 (iso8601) |
| Note | Graduation date: 2015 |
| Abstract | Ulcerative dermatitis (UD) is a common condition in C57BL/6 mice that is poorly understood and challenging to treat. Inconsistently there have been reports of an increased incidence of the disease in female mice, mice exposed to certain diets, mice of advanced age, and in several seasons. These inconsistencies indicated a need for a systematic review to better assess the evidence for commonly cited UD risk factors and treatments. The aims for the systematic review were to assess the quality of evidence for both: 1) commonly cited risk factors for UD, specifically sex, age, season, and diet; and 2) reported UD treatments. A search of three electronic databases was performed and articles were evaluated using previously published criteria for assessing methodological quality. Dietary factors, particularly caloric restriction, appear to have an effect on UD risk. Female sex was associated with an increased risk of UD in some studies, particularly diet studies, but not in others. Also, UD was seen most commonly in mice between 14 and 24 months of age in the studies reviewed. The role of season was not assessed in any of the articles that met the inclusion criteria. Of the three publications that evaluated UD treatments only one had an untreated or alternative therapy control. Further research is needed to explore epidemiologic aspects of UD and to compare treatment options. While early investigations into UD focused on the possibility of a primary dermatopathology (e.g. vasculitis of cutaneous vessels or follicular dysplasia) several recent studies have advocated scratching behavior as a primary driver for UD. The aim of the second study was to assess whether B6 mice demonstrate excessive scratching behavior under resting conditions or when provoked by epidermal barrier disruption compared to DBA/2, BALB/c, and ICR mice. The behavior of the mice was videotaped in observation chambers and reviewed for scratching frequency and duration both prior to and following tape stripping to initiate epidermal barrier injury. In addition, a spray test was performed as this test was previously associated with future UD development in B6 mice. In contrast to the hypothesis, the B6 mice did not scratch significantly more frequently, they did not have more long duration scratching events, and they did not have a higher median scratching duration for the long scratching events. In fact, the B6 mice showed the least scratching frequency and duration under many conditions. B6 mice demonstrated a statistically significant increase in scratching behavior following epidermal barrier disruption but the increased scratching did not surpass the rate or duration of scratching seen in the other genotypes of mice tested. Although the experimental results failed to support the hypothesis, the low scratching frequency and duration of B6 mice has interesting implications for the role of scratching in UD development. |
| Genre | Thesis/Dissertation |
| Access Condition | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/ |
| Topic | mouse |
| Identifier | http://hdl.handle.net/1957/56158 |
