Light/Dark Box Test

Creative Biolabs conducts a battery of anxiety behavioral tests to evaluate the potential therapeutic value and the anxiolytic activity of novel compounds. Specifically, the light/dark box test (LDB) is based on the innate aversion of rodents to brightly illuminated areas and on the spontaneous exploratory behavior of rodents in response to mild stressors, that is, novel environment and light.

Introduction of LDB Test

The LDB test is a popular animal model used in pharmacology to assay unconditioned anxiety response in rodents. The LDB apparatus has two compartments. The large light compartment (2/3 of the box) is brightly lit and open, while the small dark compartment (1/3 of the box) is covered and dark. A door of 7 cm connects the two compartments. Rodents are placed in the middle of the brightly illuminated chamber and are allowed to move freely between the two chambers. They prefer darker areas, however, when presented in a novel environment, they have a tendency to explore. These two conflicting emotions lead to observable anxiety-like symptoms. When rodents are injected with anxiolytic drugs, time spent in the light compartment will increase. But when anxiogenic drugs are injected, more time is spent in the dark compartment.

The video recording technique is often used to record animal behaviors and can be manually or automatically analyzed. The following parameters are scored:

• The latency time to enter the dark compartment.
• The time spent in the lit/dark compartment.
• The distance traveled in the lit chamber.
• The number of transitions.

Features of LDB Test

• It has the advantages of being quick and easy to use, without the prior training of animals, food and water deprivation is unnecessary and natural stimuli are used.
• Benzodiazepine is the only drug that shows consistent results in the LDB test, other anti-anxiety drugs such as the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) have shown contradicting observations.
• Male rodents are usually used because this test has not been validated for female rodents.
• A battery of anxiety behavioral tests should be done to determine the potential therapeutic value of a novel compound.

Fig.1 Long-term NMDAR antagonism induces anxiety-like behavior. Groups: control (CO), memantine 5 mg (MN 5), memantine 10 mg (MN 10), and memantine 20 mg (MN 20). (Zimmer et al. 2016)

Moreover, we provide other behavioral tests of anxiety including:

• Elevated Plus Maze Test
• Marble Burying Test

Creative Biolabs provides a wide range of behavioral tests (e.g., motor function, cognition, social behavior) for mice phenotyping as well as drug screening and efficacy assessment. Moreover, these tests can be customized to suit the specific scientific needs of our clients. Additionally, new behavioral tests are constantly being developed and validated.

An extensive range of rodent neurological disease models is placed below for your review:

For more information, please contact us or send us an inquiry.

Reference

1. Zimmer, E. R.; et al. Corrigendum: Long-term NMDAR antagonism correlates reduced astrocytic glutamate uptake with anxiety-like phenotype[J]. Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience. 2016, 10:219.

For Research Use Only.