Lahmame A, Gomez F, Armario A
Departamento de Biologia, Facultat de Ciències, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain.
Psychopharmacology (Berl). 1996 May;125(1):74-8. doi: 10.1007/BF02247395.
Fawn-hooded (FH) rats have been reported to have high basal corticosterone levels that can be normalized by antidepressant administration. In the present work, some behavioural and endocrine aspects were compared in FH and Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. No interstrain differences in basal corticosterone levels or response to acute tail-cut stress were observed either in the morning or in the evening. Relative adrenal weight was lower in FH than SD, and relative thymus weight was, accordingly, higher in FH than SD rats. FH rats were hyperactive in the holeboard and showed behaviour similar to that of SD in the plus-maze. In contrast, FH rats showed greater levels of active behaviour (struggling) and lower levels of immobility than SD rats in the forced swimming test (FST). After desipramine (DMI) administration the differences between the two strains in the FST were more marked than in vehicle-treated animals. These results indicate that FH rats show no signs of pituitary-adrenal (PA) hyperactivity or depression-like behaviour, and therefore they are not an appropriate animal model of depression.
据报道，小鹿斑比毛色（FH）大鼠的基础皮质酮水平较高，而给予抗抑郁药后可使其恢复正常。在本研究中，对FH大鼠和斯普拉格-道利（SD）大鼠的一些行为和内分泌方面进行了比较。无论是在早晨还是晚上，均未观察到两品系大鼠在基础皮质酮水平或对急性断尾应激的反应上存在差异。FH大鼠的相对肾上腺重量低于SD大鼠，相应地，FH大鼠的相对胸腺重量高于SD大鼠。FH大鼠在洞板试验中表现为多动，在十字迷宫试验中的行为与SD大鼠相似。相反，在强迫游泳试验（FST）中，FH大鼠比SD大鼠表现出更高水平的主动行为（挣扎）和更低水平的不动。给予地昔帕明（DMI）后，两品系大鼠在FST中的差异比给予溶剂的动物更为明显。这些结果表明，FH大鼠没有垂体-肾上腺（PA）功能亢进或类似抑郁行为的迹象，因此它们不是一种合适的抑郁症动物模型。
