Oct1 2 mice

Wild-type mice and mice deficient for OCT1/OCT2, the murine orthologs of human OCT2, on an FVB background [OCT1/2(−/−) mice] were obtained from Taconic Biosciences and were bred in-house at The Ohio State University. Athymic nude mice (CrTac:NCr-Fox1nu; NCRNU-M) were also obtained from Taconic Biosciences. Previous investigations indicated that the systemic clearance, tissue distribution, and excretion of oxaliplatin is similar in male and female mice (4 (link)), and that oxaliplatin-induced mechanical allodynia in mice does not exhibit sexual dimorphism (3 (link)). Because sex-dependent effects were not anticipated in the present studies, all experiments were performed only in male mice. All animals were housed in a controlled environment with a 12-hour light-dark cycle, provided with food and water ad libitum and handled according to the Animal Care and Use Committee of The Ohio State University, under an approved protocol 2015A00000101-R2. All animals purchased from external vendors were acclimatized for at least 1 week before starting the experiment. At least 5 animals were used for each test groups unless otherwise specified. Mice were balanced among groups in terms of group size and baseline characteristics such as weight, sex, and age, followed by the random assignment to control and intervention groups, according to procedures outlined elsewhere (15 (link)).