Journal
PHYSIOLOGY & BEHAVIOR
Volume 80, Issue 2-3, Pages 405-411Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2003.09.006
Keywords
baseline; corticosteroids; diel rhythm; fecal samples; lag time; noninvasive; oldfield mouse; Peromyscus polionotus subgriseus; plasma samples; radioimmunoassay; RIA; stress response; validation
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The measurement of fecal steroids provides an increasingly important noninvasive technique for assessing reproduction, environmental stress, and aggression in populations of captive and free-living animals. In this paper, we validated the corticosterone (CORT) I-125-radioimmunoassay (ICN Pharmaceuticals) for plasma and fecal samples in a small rodent species, the oldfield mouse (Peromyscus polionotus subgriseus). The biochemical validations indicated that the assays accurately measured CORT concentrations in the plasma and corticosteroid concentrations in the feces. Physiological validation demonstrated that: (1) blood samples collected within 3 min of disturbing an animal's cage represented baseline CORT concentrations, and (2) fecal corticosteroid concentrations collected over a 24-h period closely tracked plasma CORT concentrations approximately 4 h earlier. These results demonstrate that the plasma CORT and fecal corticosteroid assays are sensitive enough to detect biologically meaningful alterations in corticosteroid concentrations in oldfield mice. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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