McCarty R, Kirby R F, Garn P G
Behav Neural Biol. 1984 Jan;40(1):98-113. doi: 10.1016/s0163-1047(84)90206-1.
Three experiments confirmed and extended previous findings from this laboratory regarding strain differences in physiological and behavioral responses of rats to stressful stimulation. In the first experiment, adult male Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats had greater plasma levels of norepinephrine and epinephrine and higher mean arterial pressures following 5 min of intermittent footshock (2.0 mA, 0.5-sec duration, every 6 sec) compared to adult male Brown-Norway (B-N) rats. In contrast, basal plasma levels of both catecholamines and resting values of mean arterial pressure and heart rate did not differ between strains when rats were undisturbed in their home cages. The second experiment involved a behavioral comparison of adult male and female WKY and B-N rats during 3 consecutive daily tests in an open field arena. B-N males and females were dramatically more active and reared more frequently during each open field test compared to WKY rats. For the third experiment, adult male and female rats of the two strains were trained in a one-trial passive avoidance task and median crossover latencies were similar for all strain-sex comparisons. However, median 24-hr retention latencies were much greater for WKY male and female rats. These findings indicate that strain differences in the physiological and behavioral responses of WKY and B-N rats are consistent across sexes. Moreover, our studies with these inbred strains of rats provide a convenient model for examining the relationship between sympathetic-adrenal medullary activity and behavioral responses to stressful stimulation.
三项实验证实并扩展了本实验室先前关于大鼠对压力刺激的生理和行为反应中品系差异的研究结果。在第一个实验中，成年雄性Wistar-Kyoto（WKY）大鼠在接受5分钟间歇性足部电击（2.0毫安，0.5秒持续时间，每6秒一次）后，与成年雄性Brown-Norway（B-N）大鼠相比，去甲肾上腺素和肾上腺素的血浆水平更高，平均动脉压也更高。相比之下，当大鼠在其饲养笼中未受干扰时，两个品系的儿茶酚胺基础血浆水平以及平均动脉压和心率的静息值没有差异。第二个实验涉及成年雄性和雌性WKY和B-N大鼠在开放场地竞技场连续三天每日测试期间的行为比较。与WKY大鼠相比，B-N雄性和雌性在每次开放场地测试中明显更活跃，直立次数也更多。在第三个实验中，对两个品系的成年雄性和雌性大鼠进行了单次被动回避任务训练，所有品系-性别的比较中，中位交叉潜伏期相似。然而，WKY雄性和雌性大鼠的24小时中位保留潜伏期要长得多。这些发现表明，WKY和B-N大鼠的生理和行为反应中的品系差异在性别间是一致的。此外，我们对这些近交系大鼠的研究为研究交感-肾上腺髓质活动与对压力刺激的行为反应之间的关系提供了一个便利的模型。
