Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Animal Models

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Ace Therapeutics has been focusing on the development and optimization of animal models of psychiatric diseases for many years, and has established an excellent research platform for the development of antipsychotic drugs. We are committed to providing customized services for autism animal models for mental disease research, helping researchers to achieve their research goals smoothly.

Introduction of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Animal Models

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common anxiety disorder characterized by hyperarousal, disturbing flashbacks and numbing or avoidance of the memory of an event. Preclinical animal models can mimic the symptoms or endophenotypes associated with PTSD. And animal models report altered neuronal activity in the amygdala and prefrontal cortex induced by traumatic stress and trauma reminders, consistent with the human PTSD literature. Thus, preclinical PTSD models hold promise for new and more effective treatments for PTSD and related psychiatric disorders.

Fig. 1 Guiding principles for selecting an animal model of PTSD. (Richter-Levin G, et al., 2019)

Animal Modeling Services for PTSD

Ace Therapeutics can simulate stress-induced and PTSD disease development through rodent models. We simulate one or more behavioral and biological features of the PTSD phenotype by manipulating stress type, intensity, duration, and frequency, including avoidance behaviors, anxiety-like behaviors, hyperarousal, enhanced fear responses, and altered brain or HPA stress responses. The paradigm accelerates the disorder by applying physical, social, and psychological stressors individually or in combination. Our PTSD animal models are divided into three main categories, including physical stressors, social stressors, and psychological stressors, based on the main types of stressors used to induce PTSD-like symptoms.

Table 1 Animal models of PTSD using physical stressors.

Animal model	Stress exposure
Electric shock	Inescapable 2–20 s, 1.0–3.0 mA foot/tail shocks delivered through a steel grid floor (shock duration and current depend on frequency)
Restraint stress	1–2 h in a Plexiglas or wire mesh tube, restricting some locomotion
Immobilization stress	1–2 h in an immobilization bag (often a Decapicone) or attached to a wooden board with limbs and head in a prone position, preventing locomotion
Underwater trauma	1min forced swim and 20–45 s of forced submersion in a water tank
Single prolonged stress	2h restraint, 20-min forced swim, followed by diethyl ether anesthesia until loss of consciousness

Table 2 Animal models of PTSD using social stressors.

Animal model	Stress exposure
Resident-intruder social defeat	Daily inescapable 5-10min contact with a novel aggressive resident 24h housing with a resident, separated by a perforated screen (only sensory contact)
Witnessed social defeat	Daily inescapable 5-15min sensory contact during the physical social defeat of a novel intruder by a novel resident 24h housing with a resident, separated by a perforated screen (only sensory contact)
Cage-within-cage resident-intruder social defeat	Daily inescapable 6h housing in a wire mesh cage inside a novel resident’s home cage (only sensory contact), without food/water 1-3 unpredictable 1min physical contacts with a resident within the 6h session

Animal model

Stress exposure

Resident-intruder social defeat

Daily inescapable 5-10min contact with a novel aggressive resident

24h housing with a resident, separated by a perforated screen (only sensory contact)

Witnessed social defeat

Daily inescapable 5-15min sensory contact during the physical social defeat of a novel intruder by a novel resident

24h housing with a resident, separated by a perforated screen (only sensory contact)

Cage-within-cage resident-intruder social defeat

Daily inescapable 6h housing in a wire mesh cage inside a novel resident’s home cage (only sensory contact), without food/water

1-3 unpredictable 1min physical contacts with a resident within the 6h session

Table 3 Animal models of PTSD using psychological stressors.

Animal model	Stress exposure
Predator exposure stress	5-60 min unprotected/protected inescapable exposure to a cat or ferret
Predator-based psychosocial stress	Days 1 (light cycle) and 11 (dark cycle): 1h inescapable immobilization during exposure to a novel cat Daily unstable housing conditions
Predator scent stress	5-10min inescapable exposure to fox/bobcat urine or trimethylthiazoline on filter paper/cotton pad, cat-worn collar/cloth

Animal model

Stress exposure

Predator exposure stress

5-60 min unprotected/protected inescapable exposure to a cat or ferret

Predator-based psychosocial stress

Days 1 (light cycle) and 11 (dark cycle): 1h inescapable immobilization during exposure to a novel cat

Daily unstable housing conditions

Predator scent stress

5-10min inescapable exposure to fox/bobcat urine or trimethylthiazoline on filter paper/cotton pad, cat-worn collar/cloth

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Ace Therapeutics is committed to providing animal models of PTSD to help researchers understand the neural basis of human psychiatric disease pathology and to provide preclinical evaluation of new therapies. If you are interested in our animal models of PTSD, please feel free to make an inquiry.

References

Richter-Levin G, Stork O, Schmidt MV. Animal models of PTSD: a challenge to be met.Mol Psychiatry. 2019, 24(8):1135-1156.
Verbitsky A, Dopfel D, Zhang N. Rodent models of post-traumatic stress disorder: behavioral assessment.Transl Psychiatry. 2020, 10(1):132.

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