• Adolescent major depressive disorder
• Biomarker
• Kynurenine pathway
• Metabolites disturbance
• The 3-Hydroxykynurenine/Kynurenic Acid Ratio

• No. 202040126 Shanghai Municipal Health Commission
• No. 81971535 National Natural Science Foundation of China

Dog fights are cruel and harmful events which have a clear impact on animal welfare. For this reason, many countries have banned these events via statute. However, in some regions of the world they are still legal. Moreover, the enforcement of legal bans can be problematic in countries where they are illegal, and they may still occur. This article provides background information on dog fighting and the welfare implications of it. This includes consideration for the pain inflicted, and its mechanisms of perception and recognition. It also analyzes the injuries and emotions experienced by the animals and considers the profile of the breeders and handlers involved in the activity. Since welfare concerns often extend beyond the animals’ fighting lives, a discussion around the possibilities of reintroduction into suitable environments for these animals is also made. Finally, attention is turned to the role that veterinarians can and should play in dealing with these issues of welfare.

Throughout history it has been common to practice activities which significantly impact on animal welfare. Animal fighting, including dogfighting, is a prime example where animals often require veterinary care, either to treat wounds and fractures or to manage pain associated with tissue and where death may even result. Amongst the detrimental health effects arising are the sensory alterations that these injuries cause, which not only include acute or chronic pain but can also trigger a greater sensitivity to other harmful (hyperalgesia) or even innocuous stimuli (allodynia). These neurobiological aspects are often ignored and the erroneous assumption made that the breeds engaged in organized fighting have a high pain threshold or, at least, they present reduced or delayed responses to painful stimuli. However, it is now widely recognized that the damage these dogs suffer is not only physical but psychological, emotional, and sensory. Due to the impact fighting has on canine welfare, it is necessary to propose solution strategies, especially educational ones, i.e., educating people and training veterinarians, the latter potentially playing a key role in alerting people to all dog welfare issues. Therefore, the aim of this review is to describe the risk factors associated with dogfighting generally (dog temperament, age, sex, nutrition, testosterone levels, environment, isolation conditions, socialization, education, or training). A neurobiological approach to this topic is taken to discuss the impact on dog pain and emotion. Finally, a general discussion of the format of guidelines and laws that seek to sanction them is presented. The role that veterinarians can play in advancing dog welfare, rehabilitating dogs, and educating the public is also considered.

• fibromyalgia syndrome
• oxytocin
• pain
• serotonin
• temporomandibular disorder

• Analgesics/therapeutic use
• Animals
• Female
• Humans
• Hyperalgesia/chemically induced
• Hyperalgesia/complications
• Hyperalgesia/drug therapy
• Inflammation/chemically induced
• Inflammation/complications
• Inflammation/drug therapy
• Oxytocin/pharmacology
• Oxytocin/therapeutic use
• Rats
• Rats, Sprague-Dawley
• Receptor, Serotonin, 5-HT2A
• Ritanserin/adverse effects
• Serotonin
• Spinal Cord/metabolism

• R01 DE029074 NIDCR NIH HHS

• Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
• Efficacy
• Executive skills training
• Follow-up
• Second dose training

• group art therapy
• schizophrenia
• self-efficacy
• social function
• traditional Chinese materials

• Amygdala/drug effects
• Amygdala/metabolism
• Amygdala/physiopathology
• Analgesics, Opioid/pharmacology
• Animals
• Glutamic Acid/metabolism
• Male
• Neural Inhibition/drug effects
• Nociception/drug effects
• Nociceptive Pain/metabolism
• Nociceptive Pain/physiopathology
• Nociceptive Pain/prevention & control
• Optogenetics
• Pain Perception/drug effects
• Rats, Sprague-Dawley
• Receptors, Opioid, delta/agonists
• Receptors, Opioid, delta/metabolism
• Receptors, Opioid, kappa/agonists
• Receptors, Opioid, kappa/metabolism
• Receptors, Opioid, mu/agonists
• Receptors, Opioid, mu/metabolism
• Synapses/drug effects
• Synapses/metabolism

• PhD scholarship Funder is Australian Pain Society Funder is Bosch Institute Bishop Fellowship
• Bishop Fellowship
• APP1077806 National Health and Medical Research Council
• APP1047372 National Health and Medical Research Council
• Northcote Trust
• National Health and Medical Research Council

• cfa, complete freund adjuvant
• cpp, conditioned place preference
• cpa, conditioned place avoidance
• hpa, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal gland
• mgs, mouse grimace scale
• rgs, rat grimace scale
• tint, time to integrate to nest
• usv, ultrasonic vocalization

• Animal Experimentation/ethics
• Animal Welfare/ethics
• Animals
• Animals, Laboratory/physiology
• Pain Measurement/veterinary
• Rodentia

Resistin is most likely involved in the pathogenesis of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), but the existing findings are inconsistent.

To review the literature investigating the associations of the risk of GDM with serum level of resistin.

A systematic literature search was performed using MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Web of Science (all databases). This meta-analysis included eligible studies that: (1) investigated the relationship between the risk of GDM and serum resistin; (2) included GDM cases and controls without GDM; (3) diagnosed GDM according to the oral glucose-tolerance test; (4) were performed in humans; (5) were published as full text articles in English; and (6) provided data with median and quartile range, median and minimum and maximum values, or mean and standard deviation. The pooled standardized mean difference (SMD) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated to estimate the association between the risk of GDM and serum resistin. To analyze the potential influences of need for insulin in GDM patients and gestational age at blood sampling, we performed a subgroup analysis. Meta-regression with restricted maximum likelihood estimation was performed to assess the potentially important covariate exerting substantial impact on between-study heterogeneity.

The meta-analysis for the association between serum resistin level and GDM risk included 18 studies (22 comparisons) with 1041 cases and 1292 controls. The total results showed that the risk of GDM was associated with higher serum resistin level (SMD = 0.250, 95%CI: 0.116, 0.384). The “after 28 wk” subgroup, “no need for insulin” subgroup, and “need for insulin” subgroup indicated that higher serum resistin level was related to GDM risk (“after 28 wk” subgroup: SMD = 0.394, 95%CI: 0.108, 0.680; “no need for insulin” subgroup: SMD = 0.177, 95%CI: 0.018, 0.336; “need for insulin” subgroup: SMD = 0.403, 95%CI: 0.119, 0.687). The “before 14 wk” subgroup, “14-28 wk” subgroup, and “no information of need for insulin” subgroup showed a nonsignificant association between serum resistin level and GDM risk (“before 14 wk” subgroup: SMD = 0.087, 95%CI: -0.055, 0.230; “14-28 wk” subgroup: SMD = 0.217, 95%CI: -0.003, 0.436; “no information of need for insulin” subgroup: SMD = 0.356, 95%CI: -0.143, 0.855). The postpartum subgroup included only one study and showed that higher serum resistin level was related to GDM risk (SMD = 0.571, 95%CI: 0.054, 1.087) The meta-regression revealed that no need for insulin in GDM patients, age distribution similar between cases and controls, and ELISA all had a significant impact on between-study heterogeneity.

This meta-analysis supports that the maternal serum resistin level is associated with GDM risk.

• Resistin
• Gestational diabetes mellitus
• Meta-analysis
• Gestational age

• Synaptic plasticity
• ampa receptor
• amygdala
• pain
• parabrachial nucleus

Lack of validity in osteoarthritis pain models and assessment methods is suspected. Our goal was to 1) assess the repeatability and reproducibility of measurement and the influence of environment, and acclimatization, to different pain assessment outcomes in normal rats, and 2) test the concurrent validity of the most reliable methods in relation to the expression of different spinal neuropeptides in a chemical model of osteoarthritic pain.

Repeatability and inter-rater reliability of reflexive nociceptive mechanical thresholds, spontaneous static weight-bearing, treadmill, rotarod, and operant place escape/avoidance paradigm (PEAP) were assessed by the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). The most reliable acclimatization protocol was determined by comparing coefficients of variation. In a pilot comparative study, the sensitivity and responsiveness to treatment of the most reliable methods were tested in the monosodium iodoacetate (MIA) model over 21 days. Two MIA (2 mg) groups (including one lidocaine treatment group) and one sham group (0.9 % saline) received an intra-articular (50 μL) injection.

No effect of environment (observer, inverted circadian cycle, or exercise) was observed; all tested methods except mechanical sensitivity (ICC <0.3), offered good repeatability (ICC ≥0.7). The most reliable acclimatization protocol included five assessments over two weeks. MIA-related osteoarthritic change in pain was demonstrated with static weight-bearing, punctate tactile allodynia evaluation, treadmill exercise and operant PEAP, the latter being the most responsive to analgesic intra-articular lidocaine. Substance P and calcitonin gene-related peptide were higher in MIA groups compared to naive (adjusted P (adj-P) = 0.016) or sham-treated (adj-P = 0.029) rats. Repeated post-MIA lidocaine injection resulted in 34 times lower downregulation for spinal substance P compared to MIA alone (adj-P = 0.029), with a concomitant increase of 17 % in time spent on the PEAP dark side (indicative of increased comfort).

This study of normal rats and rats with pain established the most reliable and sensitive pain assessment methods and an optimized acclimatization protocol. Operant PEAP testing was more responsive to lidocaine analgesia than other tests used, while neuropeptide spinal concentration is an objective quantification method attractive to support and validate different centralized pain functional assessment methods.

• Acclimatization
• Animal preclinical model
• Methods
• Monosodium iodoacetate
• Neuropeptide
• Osteoarthritis
• Pain metrology
• Validation

Pain is defined as an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, but emotional states are difficult to directly assess in animals. Researchers have assessed pain using behavioural and physiological measures, but these approaches are limited to understanding the arousal rather than valence of the emotional experience. Cognitive bias tasks show that depressed humans judge ambiguous events negatively and this technique has been applied to assess emotional states in animals. However, limited research has examined how pain states affect cognitive processes in animals. Here we present the first evidence of cognitive bias in response to pain in any non-human species. In two experiments, dairy calves (n = 17) were trained to respond differentially to red and white video screens and then tested with unreinforced ambiguous colours in two or three test sessions before and two sessions after the routine practice of hot-iron disbudding. After disbudding calves were more likely to judge ambiguous colours as negative. This ‘pessimistic’ bias indicates that post-operative pain following hot-iron disbudding results in a negative change in emotional state.

In the present review, the phenomenon of ultrasonic vocalization in rats will be outlined, including the three classes of vocalizations, namely 40-kHz calls of pups, and 22- and 50-kHz calls of juvenile and adult rats, their general relevance to behavioral neuroscience, and their special relevance to research on anxiety, fear, and defense mechanisms. Here, the emphasis will be placed on 40- and 22-kHz calls, since they are typical for various situations with aversive properties. Among other topics, we will discuss whether such behavioral signals can index a certain affective state, and how these signals can be used in social neuroscience, especially with respect to communication. Furthermore, we will address the phenomenon of inter-individual variability in ultrasonic calling and what we currently know about the mechanisms, which may determine such variability. Finally, we will address the current knowledge on the neural and pharmacological mechanisms underlying 22-kHz ultrasonic vocalization, which show a substantial overlap with mechanisms known from other research on fear and anxiety, such as those involving the periaqueductal gray or the amygdala.