Alonso S J, Arevalo R, Afonso D, Rodríguez M
Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of La Laguna, Canary Islands, Spain.
Physiol Behav. 1991 Sep;50(3):511-7. doi: 10.1016/0031-9384(91)90538-y.
It has been reported that gonadal steroids modulate brain and behavioral sex differentiation during development. Prenatal maternal restraint also alters development by affecting gonadal steroid levels in the fetus. Prenatal maternal restraint of animals decreases sex differences for sexual behavior, locomotion, aggression, etc. In recent work on animal models, we reported that, like humans, laboratory rats show sex differences in depression. From the present study, performed on Sprague-Dawley rats, we conclude that: 1) there are sex differences for depression in two different animal models (swimming-induced immobility and natatory tests); 2) there are also sex differences in open-field behavior; 3) prenatal maternal restraint decreases sex differences for depression but does not affect sex differences in open-field behavior; 4) prenatal maternal restraint affects female but not male behavior in the two depression tests used. These results suggest that: 1) sex differences reported in animal models of depression are under the control of gonadal steroids during prenatal brain development; 2) stress during early phases of development increases the risk for depression in adulthood.
据报道，性腺类固醇在发育过程中调节大脑和行为的性别分化。产前母体束缚也会通过影响胎儿的性腺类固醇水平来改变发育。对动物进行产前母体束缚会减少性行为、运动、攻击性等方面的性别差异。在最近关于动物模型的研究中，我们报道，与人类一样，实验大鼠在抑郁方面也存在性别差异。通过对斯普拉格-道利大鼠进行的本研究，我们得出以下结论：1）在两种不同的动物模型（游泳诱导不动和游泳试验）中，抑郁存在性别差异；2）旷场行为也存在性别差异；3）产前母体束缚减少了抑郁的性别差异，但不影响旷场行为的性别差异；4）在所用的两种抑郁试验中，产前母体束缚影响雌性而非雄性的行为。这些结果表明：1）抑郁动物模型中报道的性别差异在产前大脑发育过程中受性腺类固醇的控制；2）发育早期的应激会增加成年后患抑郁症的风险。
