Self-Administration of Drugs in Mouse Models of Feeding and Obesity

Summary

The overall goal of this procedure is to describe a method for self-administration of drugs that can be used in mouse models of feeding and obesity.

Abstract

Preclinical studies in mice often rely on invasive protocols, such as injections or oral gavage, to deliver drugs. These stressful routes of administration have significant effects on important metabolic parameters including food intake and body weight. Although an attractive option to circumvent this is to compound the drug in rodent food or dissolve it in water, these approaches also have limitations as they are affected by drug stability at room temperature for extended periods of time, the drug's solubility in water, and that the dosing is highly dependent on timing of food or water intake. The constant availability of the drug also limits translational relevance on how drugs are administered to patients. To overcome these limitations, drugs can be mixed with highly palatable food, such as peanut butter, allowing mice to self-administer compounds. Mice reliably and reproducibly consume the drug/peanut butter pellet in a short time frame. This approach facilitates a delivery approach with minimal stress compared with an injection or gavage. This protocol demonstrates the approach of drug preparation, animal acclimatization to placebo delivery, and drug delivery. The implications of this approach are discussed in studies related to timing of drug administration and the circadian rhythm.

Introduction

The goal of this method is to deliver drugs in mice via a non-invasive, minimally stressful procedure. Preclinical studies in mice often rely on stressful, invasive routes of drug administration that can have significant impacts on metabolic parameters. For example, repetitive daily oral gavage can significantly decrease caloric intake and weight gain in mice¹. In addition, oral gavage can be technically challenging and has the potential to cause injuries. As an alternative, mice can self-administer compounds that are mixed in their food or dissolved in their drinking water ². However, this approach has a major limitatio....

Protocol

All procedures involving animal subjects have been approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) at the University of California, San Diego.

1. Making the drug-peanut butter pellet

1. Calculate the amount of drug needed to make the desired dose of drug in a pellet of peanut butter and scale to the size of the batch required for an experiment. Importantly, pellets can be kept at -80 °C, depending on drug stability.
2. Pulverize the drug tablets using a.......

Discussion

When conducting this protocol, it is important to be consistent with the accuracy of the measurements of food intake and body weight and the timing of drug administration throughout the study. While this self-administration method requires a significant training phase, this is particularly important to acclimate the mice to the novelty of the peanut butter and ensure mice consume the drug at the time given. Once established, it also offers great experimental flexibility and can be modified and adapted to deliver drugs at.......

Materials

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
C57B6/J mice	Jackson Labs, Sacramento, CA, USA	664
corticosterone pellet mold	Ted Pella Inc, Redding, CA, USA	106A
Mouse igloo	VWR, Visalia, CA, USA	89067-850	cage enrichment
peanut butter	Jif Peanut Butter, Orrville, OH, USA		Creamy peanut butter
pestle and mortar	VWR, Visalia, CA, USA	470148-960
risperidone	Patriot Pharmaceuticals, Horsham, PA, USA	50458-593-50
rodent chow	LabDiet, St. Louis, MO, USA	5001
weigh boat	VWR, Visalia, CA, USA	10803-148
weighing scale	Mettler Toledo, Greifensee, Switzerland	MS104TS
Wypall paper X60	Kimberly-Clark, Corinth, MS, USA	34865-05	absorbent paper bedding