Khalifeh Solmaz, Khodagholi Fariba, Moghtadaei Mehrad, Behvarmanesh Ali, Kheradmand Afshin, Ghazvini Hamed
Cognitive and Neuroscience Research Center (CNRC), Tehran Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
Neuroscience Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Galen Med J. 2019 Jan 1;8:e1093. doi: 10.31661/gmj.v0i0.1093. eCollection 2019.
Early life stress (ELS) models such as maternal deprivation (MD) are used to investigate behavioral changes in rodents under stressful situations. MD is a situation in which rat pups are separated from the dam; MD has different paradigms. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the effects of maternal deprivation on anxiety, depression, and empathy in adult Wistar rats.
MD was applied to pups as per specifically designed protocol to compare rats of the control group with maternal deprivation rats and also the group, which faced novel objects. Each group consisted of eight rats. In this study, separation started from postnatal day (PND) 14 for various periods up to PND 60. EPM test was undertaken to measure anxiety; moreover, FST was used to indicate levels of depression. Also, changes in the empathy ratio were also demonstrated. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Tukey's post hoc analysis, and t-test were applied to analyze the results.
MD-treated rats showed a significant decrease in anxiety and empathy indexes compared with those in the control group (P<0.05). However, MD significantly increased depression in both male and female rats (P<0.05). Finally, exposure to novel objects decreased depression but did not have any effect on anxiety and empathy levels in MD rats (P<0.05).
ELS may lead to various states of mood and behavior in adulthood. According to the findings of this study, depression increases due to MD, though both anxiety and empathy decrease in both male and female Wistar rats. Moreover, exposure to novel objects decreases depression, while anxiety and empathy do not change significantly with exposure to novel objects.
早期生活应激（ELS）模型，如母爱剥夺（MD），用于研究啮齿动物在应激情况下的行为变化。母爱剥夺是指将幼鼠与母鼠分离的情况；母爱剥夺有不同的模式。本研究的目的是评估母爱剥夺对成年Wistar大鼠焦虑、抑郁和共情的影响。
根据专门设计的方案对幼鼠进行母爱剥夺，以比较对照组大鼠与母爱剥夺组大鼠以及面对新物体组大鼠的情况。每组由八只大鼠组成。在本研究中，从出生后第14天（PND）开始分离，持续不同时间段直至PND 60。采用高架十字迷宫试验（EPM）测量焦虑；此外，采用强迫游泳试验（FST）来表明抑郁水平。同时，还展示了共情比率的变化。采用单因素方差分析（ANOVA）、Tukey事后分析和t检验来分析结果。
与对照组相比，接受母爱剥夺处理的大鼠焦虑和共情指数显著降低（P<0.05）。然而，母爱剥夺显著增加了雄性和雌性大鼠的抑郁水平（P<0.05）。最后，接触新物体可降低母爱剥夺大鼠的抑郁水平，但对其焦虑和共情水平没有任何影响（P<0.05）。
早期生活应激可能导致成年期出现各种情绪和行为状态。根据本研究的结果，母爱剥夺会导致抑郁增加，而雄性和雌性Wistar大鼠的焦虑和共情都会降低。此外，接触新物体可降低抑郁水平，而接触新物体时焦虑和共情没有明显变化。
