Locomotion Activity Measurement in an Open Field for Mice

Materials and Reagents

1. Adjustable dim light illumination is supplied with conventional argon light tubes
   
2. Custom-made OF box prepared from common household plexiglass (Figure 1)
   
3. Latex gloves
   
4. 8-10-week-old male C57Bl/6j mice (n = 55) weighing 20-26 g
   Note: The animals were housed under controlled laboratory conditions, in groups of 5, under an inverse 12-h dark/light cycle, with ad libitum access to food and tap water. To avoid the effects of shipping stress a 2-week habituation period was used before initiation of the behavioral testing. All housing and experiments were conducted in accordance with the European Communities Council Directives (86/609/ECC) and the Hungarian Act for the Protection of Animals in Research (XXVIII.tv. 32. §). Efforts were made to minimize the number of animals used and to reduce pain and discomfort.
   
   
   Figure 1. Custom-made OF box prepared from common household plexiglass. Digital video tracking can be performed with a conventional coloured CCD camera fixed and positioned above the OF arena with a telescopic tripod stand. 
   

Equipment

1. Video-tracking system (Harvard Apparatus, model: SMART^® v 3.0 ) connected to personal computer.
   
2. Coloured CCD camera (Sony, model: SSC-DC378P )
   
3. Telescopic tripod stand (Manfrotto, model: 420b )
   

Software

1. Multivariate ANOVA (mANOVA) (IBM Corporation, SPSS Statistics version 20)
   
2. SMART^® software
   

Procedure