Incorporating inter-individual variability in experimental design improves the quality of results of animal experiments

Marloes H. van der Goot; Marieke Kooij; Suzanne Stolte; Annemarie Baars; Saskia S. Arndt; Hein A. van Lith

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0255521

Incorporating inter-individual variability in experimental design improves the quality of results of animal experiments

Marloes H. van der Goot^*, Marieke Kooij, Suzanne Stolte, Annemarie Baars, Saskia S. Arndt, Hein A. van Lith

^*Corresponding author for this work

AISS LAS/3'R Centre ULS

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Inter-individual variability in quantitative traits is believed to potentially inflate the quality of results in animal experimentation. Yet, to our knowledge this effect has not been empirically tested. Here we test whether inter-individual variability in emotional response within mouse inbred strains affects the outcome of a pharmacological experiment. Three mouse inbred strains (BALB/c, C57BL/6 and 129S2) were behaviorally characterized through repeated exposure to a mild aversive stimulus (modified Hole Board, five consecutive trials). A multivariate clustering procedure yielded two multidimensional response types which were displayed by individuals of all three strains. We show that systematic incorporation of these individual response types in the design of a pharmacological experiment produces different results from an experimental pool in which this variation was not accounted for. To our knowledge, this is the first study that empirically confirms that inter-individual variability affects the interpretation of behavioral phenotypes and may obscure experimental results in a pharmacological experiment.

Original language	English
Article number	e0255521
Pages (from-to)	1-26
Number of pages	26
Journal	PLoS One
Volume	16
Issue number	8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0255521
Publication status	Published - 5 Aug 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 van der Goot et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Keywords

Inter-individual variability
Experimental design
Animal experimentation
Quality of results

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1371/journal.pone.0255521Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

Van der Goot et al 2021 - PLOS ONE 16(8) e0255521Final published version, 2.74 MBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

Cite this

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abstract = "Inter-individual variability in quantitative traits is believed to potentially inflate the quality of results in animal experimentation. Yet, to our knowledge this effect has not been empirically tested. Here we test whether inter-individual variability in emotional response within mouse inbred strains affects the outcome of a pharmacological experiment. Three mouse inbred strains (BALB/c, C57BL/6 and 129S2) were behaviorally characterized through repeated exposure to a mild aversive stimulus (modified Hole Board, five consecutive trials). A multivariate clustering procedure yielded two multidimensional response types which were displayed by individuals of all three strains. We show that systematic incorporation of these individual response types in the design of a pharmacological experiment produces different results from an experimental pool in which this variation was not accounted for. To our knowledge, this is the first study that empirically confirms that inter-individual variability affects the interpretation of behavioral phenotypes and may obscure experimental results in a pharmacological experiment.",

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AU - Stolte, Suzanne

AU - Baars, Annemarie

AU - Arndt, Saskia S.

AU - van Lith, Hein A.

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Incorporating inter-individual variability in experimental design improves the quality of results of animal experiments

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

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