Maternal deprivation in the early versus late postnatal period differentially affects growth and stress-induced corticosterone responses in adolescent rats.

Periodic maternal deprivation (MD) in the early postnatal period leads to permanently altered responsibility of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis to various types of stress. However, no reports appear to have described the effect of periodic MD under different conditions on growth of the developing rat and responsibility of the HPA axis to immobilization stress in adolescent rats. Furthermore, although body weight changes are known to affect stress responsibility, their relationship under periodic MD is not clear. The present study therefore used 4 different types of periodic MD: for 12 h/day from postnatal day (P)1 to P6 (12E group); for 3 h/day from P1 to P6 (3E group); for 12 h/day from P16 to P21 (12L group); and for 3 h/day from P16 to P21 (3L group). Mean body weights were less in the 3E and 12E groups than in the control group until at least 9 weeks old, although body weight gain in the 3L and 12L groups was only transiently affected. Stress-induced corticosterone levels in the 3E and 12E groups did not return to basal levels until at least 330 min after the termination of stress, while temporal variations of stress-induced corticosterone levels did not differ significantly between the 3L, 12L and control groups. Periodic MD in the first postnatal week affected growth of developing rats and responsibility of the HPA axis to immobilization stress in adolescent rats, and the extent of this modification was larger with MD for 12 h/day than with MD for 3 h/day. Conversely, periodic MD from P16 to P21 had little effect. Periodic MD in the postnatal period induces long-term effects on growth and stress responsibility of the HPA axis. Furthermore, a critical age of the pup at the time of MD exists as well as a critical length of MD for inducing these effects.