Biomaterial Database

A technique for restraining rodents during hindlimb interventions. 2000

S J Warden, and K L Bennell, and J M McMeeken, and J D Wark

School of Physiotherapy, The University of Melbourne, Australia.

Recently interest has grown in the skeletal effects of external electrophysical modalities. To introduce these modalities into the rodent hindlimb, restraining the animals is often necessary. This report describes a novel restraint device that was highly successful when used on 10 Sprague-Dawley rats for 20 min daily for 6 days each week over a period of 12 weeks. The restrained animals gained less weight than did 10 cage control animals, suggesting that animals experienced stress. However, this weight loss was significant (p < 0.05) only during the first six weeks, suggesting a degree of acclimatization. Restraint had no observable effect on measures of bone mineral content of the hindlimb. The restraint device we developed restrained animals without the need for anesthetics, enabling our device to be used in future studies investigating the skeletal effect of external electrophysical modalities on the rodent hindlimb.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D012149	Restraint, Physical	Use of a device for the purpose of controlling movement of all or part of the body. Splinting and casting are FRACTURE FIXATION.	Immobilization, Physical,Physical Restraint,Physical Immobilization,Physical Restraints,Restraints, Physical
D004594	Electrophysiology	The study of the generation and behavior of electrical charges in living organisms particularly the nervous system and the effects of electricity on living organisms.
D004867	Equipment Design	Methods and patterns of fabricating machines and related hardware.	Design, Equipment,Device Design,Medical Device Design,Design, Medical Device,Designs, Medical Device,Device Design, Medical,Device Designs, Medical,Medical Device Designs,Design, Device,Designs, Device,Designs, Equipment,Device Designs,Equipment Designs
D005260	Female		Females
D006614	Hindlimb	Either of two extremities of four-footed non-primate land animals. It usually consists of a FEMUR; TIBIA; and FIBULA; tarsals; METATARSALS; and TOES. (From Storer et al., General Zoology, 6th ed, p73)	Hindlimbs
D000818	Animals	Unicellular or multicellular, heterotrophic organisms, that have sensation and the power of voluntary movement. Under the older five kingdom paradigm, Animalia was one of the kingdoms. Under the modern three domain model, Animalia represents one of the many groups in the domain EUKARYOTA.	Animal,Metazoa,Animalia
D000822	Animal Husbandry	The science of breeding, feeding and care of domestic animals; includes housing and nutrition.	Animal Husbandries,Husbandries, Animal,Husbandry, Animal
D000827	Animal Welfare	The protection of animals in laboratories or other specific environments by promoting their health through better nutrition, housing, and care.	Animal Cruelty,Cruelty, Animal,Welfare, Animal
D017207	Rats, Sprague-Dawley	A strain of albino rat used widely for experimental purposes because of its calmness and ease of handling. It was developed by the Sprague-Dawley Animal Company.	Holtzman Rat,Rats, Holtzman,Sprague-Dawley Rat,Rats, Sprague Dawley,Holtzman Rats,Rat, Holtzman,Rat, Sprague-Dawley,Sprague Dawley Rat,Sprague Dawley Rats,Sprague-Dawley Rats
D051381	Rats	The common name for the genus Rattus.	Rattus,Rats, Laboratory,Rats, Norway,Rattus norvegicus,Laboratory Rat,Laboratory Rats,Norway Rat,Norway Rats,Rat,Rat, Laboratory,Rat, Norway,norvegicus, Rattus