| abstract |
A movement-responsive system for conducting tests on freely-moving animals is disclosed.nThe invention includes a container (14) for housing the animal, a mechanism for rotating the containernin response to rotational movement of the animal, and one or more test leads (18,20,22,24) connected to the animalnfor performance of biomedical tests such as infusion, in vivo ultrafiltration, laser-doppler monitoringnof blood flow, electrical stimulation and in vivo microdialysis, and a method for automated micronsampling of body fluids in free-moving animals. Because the cage (14) is rotated in response to thenanimal's rotational movement, no swivel connectors are needed. A rotational sensor assembly (32) isnprovided to detect rotational movement of the animal within the container (14). A vertical sensornassembly is mounted to the counterbalanced arm for monitoring vertical movements of the animal.nThe outputs of the sensor assemblies (32) are routed to a computer or other device for monitoring and/ornanalyzing the activity of the animal. The container (14) is configured to act as an operant chamber or anmetabolic chamber by locating a hole in the bottom of the container and through the rotatingnmechanism. The invention also enables a new method for sampling body fluids of the animalnwithout restricting the animal's movement. The sampling method uses a syringe pump (40,42,44) to result innhigh fidelity fluid control greatly increasing repeatability of experiments. Further, the methodnemploys pinch valves (182) to control fluid flow in conjunction with an anticoagulant coated tubing,nthereby resulting in a blood sampling method that does not require the use of heparinized sterilensaline solution as a wash fluid. |