EGX358

The Open Field Test is a rodent behavioral assay that measures spontaneous locomotion, exploratory behavior, and anxiety-like behavior when an animal is placed in a novel open arena. The main readouts are total distance traveled, movement time, velocity, center-zone entries, center-zone time, peripheral-zone time, and thigmotaxis. The assay is based on the conflict between exploration of a novel environment and avoidance of exposed open areas; higher center exploration is commonly interpreted as lower anxiety-like behavior, whereas increased wall-following or peripheral occupancy is interpreted as higher anxiety-like behavior.

The Elevated Plus Maze is a rodent anxiety-like behavior assay based on the conflict between spontaneous exploration and avoidance of open, elevated, exposed spaces. The apparatus contains two open arms and two closed arms arranged in a plus shape, and rodents normally spend more time in closed arms than open arms. The assay readout is generated by recording arm entries, time spent in open and closed arms, and related exploratory behaviors. Increased open-arm time or open-arm entries is commonly interpreted as reduced anxiety-like behavior, whereas reduced open-arm exploration is interpreted as increased anxiety-like behavior.

Endocrine diseases often arise from disrupted hormone production, hormone signaling, or target-tissue responsiveness; for diabetes-focused endocrine disease models, insulin signaling regulates glucose uptake, hepatic glucose output, lipid metabolism, and β-cell compensation. Type 2 diabetes develops through interacting defects in insulin resistance, β-cell dysfunction, adipose inflammation, hepatic glucose overproduction, altered incretin signaling, and ectopic lipid metabolism. A major unresolved question is whether endocrine dysfunction is driven primarily by target-tissue insulin resistance, intrinsic β-cell failure, immune/inflammatory stress, or combined multi-organ failure that differs by disease stage.

The Tail Suspension Test is a mouse behavioral assay in which an animal is suspended by the tail in an inescapable position, causing alternating escape-directed activity and immobility; the main readout is immobility time, and antidepressant-like treatments generally reduce immobility compared with vehicle controls. The assay detects behavioral response to acute inescapable stress rather than a molecular event; immobility is interpreted as passive stress-coping behavior, while reduced immobility is used as a predictive screen for antidepressant-like activity, with important limitations related to strain, locomotor activity, and tail-climbing behavior.

The Morris Water Maze is a rodent spatial learning and memory assay in which a mouse or rat swims in opaque water to find an escape platform; in the hidden-platform version, the animal cannot see the platform and must use distal extra-maze cues to learn its fixed spatial location. The assay primarily measures hippocampus-dependent spatial learning during acquisition trials and spatial reference memory during probe trials after platform removal; readouts include escape latency, swim path length, swim speed, quadrant occupancy, platform-site crossings, and proximity to the former platform location.

The Forced Swim Test is a rodent behavioral assay in which a mouse or rat is placed in an inescapable cylinder of water, and the main readout is the time spent immobile versus active escape-related behaviors such as swimming or climbing. Reduced immobility after treatment has historically been interpreted as antidepressant-like activity, but the assay should be interpreted as a behavioral response to acute inescapable stress rather than a complete model of human depression.

The Sucrose Preference Test is a rodent two-bottle choice assay used to estimate reward-related behavior by measuring preference for a sweet sucrose solution over water. Reduced sucrose preference is commonly interpreted as an anhedonia-like phenotype in stress-based depression models, but it can also be affected by thirst, hunger, body weight, learning, motivation, and general fluid intake.

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by a progressive decline in cognitive functions and loss of specific types of neurons and synapses. Alzheimer's symptoms can be simulated in mice by injecting drugs (such as Aβ) or genetically modified.