Gender of experimenter has big impact on rats' stress levels

[n2doc]

Scientists' inability to replicate research findings using mice and rats has contributed to mounting concern over the reliability of such studies.

Now, an international team of pain researchers led by scientists at McGill University in Montreal may have uncovered one important factor behind this vexing problem: the gender of the experimenters has a big impact on the stress levels of rodents, which are widely used in preclinical studies.

In research published online April 28 in Nature Methods, the scientists report that the presence of male experimenters produced a stress response in mice and rats equivalent to that caused by restraining the rodents for 15 minutes in a tube or forcing them to swim for three minutes. This stress-induced reaction made mice and rats of both sexes less sensitive to pain.

Female experimenters produced no such effects.

more
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140428120652.htm

[Warpy]

1. Fascinating.

This will limit the ability of male researchers to use rats in non stress situations.

Considering the mortality rate I have wrought against rodents this year, I find it bizarre that women would be seen as somehow more trustworthy.

[mike_c]

2. semiochemicals....

Yep, thought so. Stinky armpits!