Corticosterone, adrenal and spleen weight in mice after tail bleeding, and its effect on nearby animals

Abstract

Experiments were performed in mice to study if stress was involved in tail bleeding and to investigate any transmittable signal at killing. A second study looked at the time taken to recover from stress elicited by these procedures. Corticosterone levels were significantly higher in mice immediately after the completion of tail bleeding than in control mice (PP<0.05) than the average corticosterone level in tail blood on day 1, indicating that mice recovered within 24 h from the stress of tail bleeding.