Dexamethasone Suppression Test
Objective: Assessment of corticosterone suppression by dexamethasone administration prior to restraint stress and blood sampling
This is a Dexamethasone Suppression Test protocol using mouse as the model organism. The procedure involves 5 procedural steps, 3 equipment items, 6 materials. Extracted from a 2011 paper published in Nature.
Model and subjects
mouse • Mixed C57Bl/6:CD-1 background (v-WT and v-TK transgenic mice); C57Bl/6 mice • male • 8 weeks at treatment start; tested 9 weeks after irradiation for C57Bl/6 cohort
Study window
~8 week study window | ~3.2 hours hands-on
Core workflow
Valganciclovir treatment initiation • Dexamethasone or vehicle injection • Restraint stress application
Primary readouts
- Serum corticosterone levels
- Degree of corticosterone suppression by dexamethasone
- Comparison between dexamethasone-treated and vehicle-treated groups
Key equipment and reagents
Use this page as an execution guide, then fall back to the source paper whenever you need exact exclusions, dosing details, or assay-specific caveats.
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- Verify the animal model, intervention setup, and collection timepoints against the source paper.
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Protocol Steps
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Valganciclovir treatment initiation
Begin valganciclovir treatment of transgenic mice at 8 weeks of age
Note: Treatment duration is 8 weeks specifically for the dexamethasone experiment cohort
View evidence from paper
“Male v-WT and v-TK mice were treated with valganciclovir for 8 weeks (dexamethasone experiment), beginning at 8 weeks of age”
Dexamethasone or vehicle injection
Inject dexamethasone (50 µg/kg in propylene glycol) or vehicle control intravenously or intraperitoneally
Note: Injection timing is critical - must be 90 minutes before restraint stress
View evidence from paper
“dexamethasone (Sigma; 50 µg/kg in propylene glycol) or vehicle were injected 90 min prior to restraint”
Restraint stress application
Place mice in restraint apparatus for stress exposure
Note: Blood sampling occurs immediately following restraint completion
View evidence from paper
“blood was sampled immediately following 10 min restraint”
Blood sampling
Obtain blood samples from submandibular vein immediately after restraint stress
Note: Samples collected directly from home cage condition or after various stressors
View evidence from paper
“blood samples obtained directly from the home cage condition or after exploration of a novel box, restraint, or isoflurane exposure”
Serum corticosterone measurement
Measure serum corticosterone levels using radioimmunoassay
Note: Uses MP Biomedicals radioimmunoassay system
View evidence from paper
“Serum corticosterone was measured by radioimmunoassay (MP Biomedicals)”