Objective To investigate the abnormal performance of fine behaviors in home cages, such as voluntary movement, exploratory behavior and self-care behavior, in addition to motor dysfunction in mice with spinal cord injury.
Methods Ten 8-week-old female C57BL/6 mice were subjected to T10 spinal cord blow to establish a model. Another 11 mice were selected as the sham-operated group. From 1 to 5 weeks after the operation, the mice were placed in the home cage at a fixed time every day to record their fine behaviors, and the time percentage of the animals' 32 daily behaviors was analyzed using HomeCageScan software.
Results Compared with the animals in the sham-operated group, most of the behavioral activities in the exploratory behavior, voluntary movement and self-care behavior of the mice with early spinal cord injury were significantly abnormal (P<0.01), and some behaviors recovered 1 to 5 weeks after the injury. 1 to 5 weeks after spinal cord injury, the exploratory behaviors represented by upright and smelling in mice were significantly reduced compared with those in the sham-operated group (P<0.01). Compared with the sham operation group, the voluntary movements represented by slow walking and jumping in the spinal cord injury group were significantly reduced (P<0.05), and the 2nd and 5th weeks after the operation, respectively. The recovery was significantly different from the first week after operation (P<0.05); the self-care behaviors represented by twitching and grooming were significantly increased compared with the sham operation group (P<0.01). Weeks showed no significant improvement.
Conclusion In addition to the motor dysfunction of both lower limbs, spinal cord injured mice also have abnormalities in exploratory behavior, autonomous movement and self-care behavior. From 1 to 5 weeks after injury, exploratory behaviors and voluntary motor behaviors recovered to varying degrees, while self-care behaviors continued to be abnormal. The automated high-throughput fine behavior detection system in home cages can accurately classify and comprehensively record dozens of animal behaviors, and is a more comprehensive and sensitive evaluation tool for behavioral disorders in spinal cord injuries.