Forced Swim Test

As one of the most widely used behavioral test to assess depressive-like behavior in animal models and for the pharmaceutical screening of potential antidepressant treatments, the forced swim test (FST) is based on the principle that animals develop an immobile posture in a non-escapable cylinder filled with water. Creative Biolabs conducts the FST in rodents to evaluate the efficacy of antidepressant drugs and new compounds that are aimed at rendering or preventing depressive-like states.

Introduction of Forced Swim Test

The FST was developed in 1978 by Porsolt and his colleagues as a model for predicting the clinical efficacy. In practice, rats or mice are placed in a cylinder filled with water during the test session. The tank is transparent and usually made of Plexiglass. The animal will swim in the water looking for an escape route. After some time, the animal may stop swimming and develop a behavioral despair that is characterized by immobility except for small movements needed to remain afloat. The animal's behavior is recorded and the duration of immobility as well as struggling and swimming is measured. Increased immobility (floating) is interpreted as a behavioral correlate of negative mood, representing a kind of depression in the animal. After treatment with antidepressants, the animals will actively execute escape-directed behaviors for a longer duration than the control animals administered with normal saline solutions.

Features of Forced Swim Test

• The FST can be conducted both in rats and mice. The test in mice requires no training, and the lest takes less time and money. But the test in rats involves exposure to the water tank one day prior to the test day.
• Various antidepressants have been tested in the FST, allowing researchers to compare and contrast their own results with the previous data.
• An additional feature of the FST is the availability of commercial automated behavior analysis systems that can accelerate the data collection process, but these automated systems require extensive validation by human scoring.

Fig.1 Effects of SCE administration on the immobility time in the Forced Swim Test. SCE, Schisandra Chinensis Extract; Flu, Fluoxetine. (Yan et al. 2017)

Creative Biolabs has established and validated a wide range of animal behavioral tests to evaluate different aspects of rodent behavior, including motor function, cognitive function, and social behavior. Additionally, we also provide tail suspension test for depression assessment.

Of note, the neurological platform of Creative Biolabs provides an extensive range of rodent neurological disease models. If you are interested, click the following links for more detailed description of each model:

To better serve our clients, all these paradigms can be customized to suit the practical requirements. If you are interested in learning more about our depression models and behavioral tests, please contact us to start the conversation.

Reference

1. Yan, T.; et al. Antidepressant-like effects and cognitive enhancement of Schisandra Chinensis in chronic unpredictable mild stress mice and its related mechanism[J]. Scientific Reports. 2017, 7(1):6903.

For Research Use Only.