Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Management, Maastricht University Medical Centre, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Department of Translational Neuroscience, School of Mental Health and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Dev Psychobiol. 2021 Dec;63(8):e22210. doi: 10.1002/dev.22210.
The influence of neonatal experiences upon later-life affective behavior is increasingly recognized, but the reported effects on anxiety are often contradictory. The observed effect may depend upon the type of anxiety (state or trait) affected. The current study aims to investigate whether neonatal repetitive needle pricking alters anxiety behavior in adulthood, by assessing both state and trait anxiety in rats. Sprague-Dawley rat pups received four unilateral needle pricks per day, while controls received four tactile stimuli or were left completely undisturbed during the first postnatal week. Mechanical sensitivity was assessed in the neonatal phase and throughout the development. State anxiety was assessed in the open field test and trait anxiety in the elevated zero maze. The results show that repetitive needle pricking leads to acute mechanical hypersensitivity, but does not affect baseline mechanical sensitivity throughout development. In adulthood, animals previously exposed to neonatal procedural pain (including repetitive handling and removal from litter) showed lower state anxiety but did not differ in trait anxiety, as compared with the undisturbed controls. These findings indicate that early-life procedural pain decreases state but not trait anxiety behavior in later life in a rodent model of repetitive needle pricking.
新生儿期经历对后期情感行为的影响越来越受到重视，但报告的焦虑影响往往相互矛盾。观察到的影响可能取决于受影响的焦虑类型（状态或特质）。本研究旨在通过评估大鼠的状态和特质焦虑，研究新生儿期重复针刺是否会改变成年后的焦虑行为。新生的斯普拉格-道利大鼠每天接受 4 次单侧针刺，而对照组在出生后的第一周内接受 4 次触觉刺激或完全不受干扰。在新生儿期和整个发育期评估机械敏感性。在旷场试验中评估状态焦虑，在高架零迷宫中评估特质焦虑。结果表明，重复针刺会导致急性机械性超敏反应，但不会影响整个发育期的基础机械敏感性。在成年期，与未受干扰的对照组相比，以前经历过新生儿程序性疼痛（包括重复处理和从窝中取出）的动物表现出较低的状态焦虑，但在特质焦虑方面没有差异。这些发现表明，在重复针刺的啮齿动物模型中，早期生活程序性疼痛会降低后期生活的状态焦虑，但不会改变特质焦虑行为。
