Background: The equipment requested in this application will provide the capability to comprehensively evaluate metabolic and behavioral phenotypes in rats and mice. Our investigators presently use behavioral testing as an endpoint in ongoing, VA-funded research on spinal cord injury (SCI), Alzheimer's disease and mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Behavioral testing is also an important endpoint in ongoing NIH funded studies on aging related vulnerability to functional decline after surgery. Because of links between mTBI, Alzheimer's disease or SCI and diabetes and metabolic syndrome, there is an intense interest in having the ability to evaluate metabolic function among many of our investigators. Equipment Requested: This application requests funds to purchase additional equipment needed to update and expand our current rodent phenotyping core: 1) Fear conditioning; 2) Acoustic startle/prepulse inhibition; 3) Open field; 4) Morris water maze; 5) Escape hole radial 8-arm maze; 6) Sociability; 7) Rotorods; 8) Blood pressure monitoring; 9) Ethovision XT13 tracking software and Color Gig-E camera which supports some of the above behavioral tests; 10) Promethion high-resolution metabolic phenotyping system. Justification: These purchases will modernize and update an already established phenotyping facility that is no longer has the capacity to support internal demand. It will also add the capability to run multiple tests simultaneously and to test mice and rats in separate equipment located in separate spaces. It will also add the ability to perform more sophisticated tests that refine and enhance our investigators understanding of effects of mTBI and other neurological conditions on cognition, memory and overall behavior, such as the 8-arm maze test and sociability tests; the later has been included because of the growing awareness that difficulties in socialization is a consequence of recurring mTBI. Also added will be the ability to capture in great detail information on metabolism by indirect calorimetry in the animals home cage together with data on activity, body weight and other physiologic parameters. Impact: If funded, this application would give VA researchers at the JJPVA a modernized, cutting-edge rodent phenotyping core with an expanded capability to perform comprehensive behavioral and metabolic phenotyping analysis. to measure at high-resolution the metabolic health of an animal after genetic or experimental These instruments will be used in VA-funded projects in the fields of Alzheimer's disease, traumatic brain injury, and spinal cord injury. The instruments would be a key component to test the efficacy at the whole animal level of many therapeutic interventions and substantially broaden and enhance the understanding of medical conditions that affect the health and quality of life of veterans impacted by these diseases and disabilities.
Mice and rats are rodents that are widely used in biomedical research because their bodies respond to stress, drugs and trauma similarly to man, allowing scientists to better understand disease and evaluate treatment in a controlled laboratory environment. At the James J Peters VA Medical Center (JJPVA), rodents are extensively used in research aimed at common health problems for Veterans such as traumatic brain injury (TBI), spinal cord injury (SCI), Alzehimer's disease and aging. All of these lines of investigation rely on `phenotyping' which includes measurements of physical function, memory and learning, and other traits. Moreover, research at JJPVA is now attempting to understand the reasons for links between TBI, Alzhiemer's disease or SCI with diabetes with the hope that knowledge gained will identify opportunities for new treatments. This application requests phenotyping equipment that will allow JJPVA investigators to modernize aging equipment, expand the number of test apparatus to meet increased demand, and add new test modalities.
