2.10 Social interaction experiments
Adult male C57BL/6J mice were the subjects, and CD1 retired breeders
were the aggressors. The day after the last injection (day 29), the
social interaction test was performed. The social interaction test
comprises two trials of 5 minutes for each. In the first trial (‘target
absent’), each mouse was placed into an open-field box and allowed to
explore a plastic enclosure placed within the predefined interaction
zone. In the second trial (‘target present’), each mouse was returned to
the open-field arena containing a plastic enclosure now holding an
unfamiliar CD1 mouse. The duration in the interaction zone was obtained
using Ethovision XT (Noldus, USA) software (in seconds). The open-field
apparatus was cleaned after each trial to remove olfactory cues.