AUTHOR=Zhao Weinan , Li Qing , Ma Yu , Wang Zhiyong , Fan Bingqian , Zhai Xiaojing , Hu Mengfan , Wang Qing , Zhang Moruo , Zhang Chunyan , Qin Yixue , Sha Sha , Gan Zhonghao , Ye Fan , Xia Yihan , Zhang Guangchao , Yang Li , Zou Shiya , Xu Zheng , Xia Sunhui , Yu Yumei , Abdul Mannan , Yang Jun-Xia , Cao Jun-Li , Zhou Fang , Zhang Hongxing TITLE=Behaviors Related to Psychiatric Disorders and Pain Perception in C57BL/6J Mice During Different Phases of Estrous Cycle JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neuroscience VOLUME=15 YEAR=2021 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnins.2021.650793 DOI=10.3389/fnins.2021.650793 ISSN=1662-453X ABSTRACT=

Robust sex difference among humans regarding psychiatry- and pain-related behaviors is being researched; however, the use of female mice in preclinical research is relatively rare due to an unchecked potential behavioral variation over the estrous cycle. In the present study, a battery of psychiatry- and pain-related behaviors are examined under physiological condition in female C57BL/6J mice over different estrous cycle phases: proestrus, estrous, metestrous, diestrous. Our behavioral results reveal that there is no significant difference over different phases of the estrous cycle in social interaction test, sucrose preference test, tail suspension test, open field test, marble burying test, novelty-suppressed feeding test, Hargreaves thermal pain test, and Von Frey mechanical pain test. These findings implicate those psychiatry- and pain-related behaviors in normal female C57BL/6J mice appear to be relatively consistent throughout the estrous cycle; the estrous cycle might not be a main contributor to female C57BL/6J mice’s variability of behaviors.