Tail Suspension Test in an Angelman Syndrome Mouse Model

Connect the tail suspension cage to the computer using a USB cable. Insert the USB dongle into the computer and start the software by double clicking on the BioTSD software icon. In the settings tab on the global, ensure the acquisition duration is set to 360 seconds.

In the experiment tab, select the new list of subjects and create a new experiment file and a new list of tested subjects by following the instructions in the opened tab. Prepare the animals for the test by wrapping single-sided adhesive tape around three-fourths of the animal’s tail starting from the base. Start the run by clicking start run then continue in the acquisition tab.

Immediately after hanging the animal on the hook, click the start icon under the visualized position to acquire data. After testing all the animals, in the analysis tab, select the last four minutes of the acquisition for analysis. Select all valid runs in the analysis period and click analyze selected subjects.

Choose the desired data format and click export selected data to export the collected data. In the tail suspension test, Ube3a mutant animals were immobile for significantly longer than their control littermates, indicating their depression-like behavior.