Abstract
Important in all experimental animal studies is the need to control stress stimuli associated with environmental change and experimental procedures. As the stress response involves alterations in levels of vasoactive hormones, ensuing changes in cardiovascular parameters may confound experimental outcomes. Accordingly, we evaluated the duration required for dogs (n = 4) to acclimatize to frequent blood sampling that involved different procedures. On each sampling occasion during a 6-week period, dogs were removed from their pen to a laboratory area and blood was collected either by venepuncture (days 2, 15, 34, 41) for plasma renin activity (PRA), epinephrine (EPI), norepinephrine, aldosterone, insulin, and atrial natriuretic peptide, or by cannulation (dogs restrained in slings; days 1, 8, 14, 22, 30, 33, 37, 40) for determination of haematocrit (HCT) alone (days 1 to 22) or HCT with plasma volume (PV; days 30 to 40). PRA was higher on days 2 and 15 compared with days 34 and 41 and had decreased by up to 48% by the end of the study (day 41 vs day 15; mean/SEM: 1.18/0.27 vs 2.88/0.79 ng ANG I/ml/h, respectively). EPI showed a time-related decrease from days 2 to 34, during which mean values had decreased by 51% (mean/SEM: 279/29 vs 134/20.9 pg/ml for days 2 and 34, respectively), but appeared stable from then on. None of the other hormones showed any significant variability throughout the course of the study. HCT was relatively variable between days 1 to 22 but stabilized from day 30, after which all mean values were approximately 6% lower than those between days 1 and 8. We conclude that an acclimatization period of at least 4 weeks is required to eliminate stress-related effects in dogs associated with periodic blood sampling.