Böswald LF et al. (2022), Morphometrics of Xenopus laevis Kept as Laborat...

XB-ART-59456

Animals (Basel) 2022 Oct 30;1221:. doi: 10.3390/ani12212986.

Show Gene links Show Anatomy links

Morphometrics of Xenopus laevis Kept as Laboratory Animals.

Böswald LF , Matzek D , Mohr H , Kienzle E , Popper B .

???displayArticle.abstract???
Morphometric data that provide information on body conditions can be used to monitor the health and well-being of animals. In laboratory animals, they can help to evaluate the stress due to experiments or treatments, following the 3R principles. The aim of the present study was to obtain morphometric data of male and female African clawed frogs, Xenopus laevis, as the bases for body condition evaluations. Adult frogs (n = 198) were weighed and standardized photographs were taken. The photographs were used to determine several measurements (length, cranial width, caudal width, thigh width). In addition, a triangle was drawn to outline each frog’s simplified body form, and the triangle surface was calculated. In conclusion, the triangle surface drawn on the dorsal plane of each frog correlated with the body weight of the females. There were significant differences between the body weights and sizes of male and female frogs, with males being smaller (p < 0.001). Based on the morphometric data, females could be assigned to five groups in which an assessment of the animal’s well-being is feasible.

???displayArticle.pubmedLink??? 36359110
???displayArticle.pmcLink??? PMC9653714
???displayArticle.link??? Animals (Basel)

???attribute.lit??? ???displayArticles.show???

References [+] :

Albornoz, An Improved Approach to Automated Measurement of Body Condition Score in Dairy Cows Using a Three-Dimensional Camera System. 2021, Pubmed

	Figure 1. (A) Xenopus laevis frogs were housed in groups of 10–15 animals. In total 198 males (m) and 40 females (f) were used to establish the method. (B) Camera set-up. The tablet was mounted on the tripod at a fixed distance (d) and height of 49 cm (h1) above the table, resulting in a 44 cm distance between the tablet and the ground of the basin (h), where the frogs were placed. Body weight was measured for each frog in parallel to the image acquisition. (C) Lines showing all the measurements that were taken from each frog (cranial width CrW, caudal width CdW, snout–vent length L, thigh width TW). The metric scale was used for the calculation of actual distances from the photograph. (D) GIMP© image analysis software was used to measure distances drawn on the frogs’ dorsal planes.
	Figure 2. Body weight distribution in adult males (n = 40) and females (n = 198). Xenopus laevis (α < 0.001).
	Figure 3. Comparison of the triangle surface (cm2) in adult males (n = 40) and females (n = 198). Xenopus laevis (α < 0.001).
	Figure 4. Exponential correlation between body weight (x-axis) and length (y-axis) of adult Xenopus laevis frogs (n = 238, y = −0.0003x2 + 0.1132x + 1.9692; R2 = 0.87).
	Figure 5. Strong linear correlation between body weight (x-axis) and triangular surface (y-axis) of female adult Xenopus laevis frogs (n = 198; y = 0.13x + 10.11; R2 = 0.85).
	Figure 6. Strong linear correlation between log10 transformed data on cranial width (x-axis) and caudal with (y-axis) of Xenopus laevis frogs of both sexes (n = 238; y = 1.08x + 0.03; R2 = 0.91).
	Figure 7. Relative mass condition index WR calculated separately in male (n = 40) and female (n = 198) Xenopus laevis frogs.
	Figure 8. Triangle surface (cm2) scaled according to the groups calculated from body weight: length (group 1–5) (female frogs, n = 198). There were significant differences between groups 1 and 2 on the one hand and groups 3, 4, and 5 on the other hand (p < 0.001), except for 4 and 5 (p = 0.151). The color coding indicates average (yellow) and higher deviations (red) from the average (green).
	Figure 9. Caudal width (cm) scaled according to the groups calculated from body weight: length (group 1–5) (female frogs, n = 198). Means ± SD: 1 (n = 4): 4.51 ± 0.14; 2 (n = 33): 5.33 ± 0.44. The color coding indicates average (yellow) and higher deviations (red) from the average (green).