TY - JOUR
T1 - Comparison of maternal separation and early handling in terms of their neurobehavioral effects in aged rats
AU - Lehmann, Julia
AU - Pryce, Christopher R.
AU - Jongen-Rêlo, Ana L.
AU - Stöhr, Thomas
AU - Pothuizen, Helen H.J.
AU - Feldon, Joram
N1 - Funding Information:
The research was supported by a grant from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich. Special thanks are due to Elisabeth Weber and Corinne Späte for technical assistance in the neuroanatomy laboratory, animal services for animal husbandry and care, and Bonnie Strehler for her help with the preparation of the manuscript.
PY - 2002
Y1 - 2002
N2 - In the rat, relative to pup nonhandling (NH), early handling (EH) leads to old-adult offspring with a hyporesponsive HPA axis, superior spatial cognition, and greater hippocampal (HIPP) neuronal density. The present study compared the effects of EH and repeated maternal separation (MS), in the form of 6-hr separation on each of 4 days beginning at day 12, on spatial cognition, corticosterone (CORT) levels, and HIPP characteristics, in aged rats. Male Wistar rat pups were exposed to EH, MS, NH or our normal in-house husbandry (CON) and tested at 18-20 months. Relative to NH and CON, EH demonstrated superior spatial cognition, reduced CORT stress response, reduced CA-field volume and no change in HIPP neuronal number. MS demonstrated a trend to superior spatial cognition, an unaffected CORT stress response, reduced CA-field volume and no change in HIPP neuronal number. These findings are important in terms of the life-span mechanisms via which postnatal manipulations induce neurobehavioral effects, and the mechanisms via which CORT and HIPP structure relate to HIPP function.
AB - In the rat, relative to pup nonhandling (NH), early handling (EH) leads to old-adult offspring with a hyporesponsive HPA axis, superior spatial cognition, and greater hippocampal (HIPP) neuronal density. The present study compared the effects of EH and repeated maternal separation (MS), in the form of 6-hr separation on each of 4 days beginning at day 12, on spatial cognition, corticosterone (CORT) levels, and HIPP characteristics, in aged rats. Male Wistar rat pups were exposed to EH, MS, NH or our normal in-house husbandry (CON) and tested at 18-20 months. Relative to NH and CON, EH demonstrated superior spatial cognition, reduced CORT stress response, reduced CA-field volume and no change in HIPP neuronal number. MS demonstrated a trend to superior spatial cognition, an unaffected CORT stress response, reduced CA-field volume and no change in HIPP neuronal number. These findings are important in terms of the life-span mechanisms via which postnatal manipulations induce neurobehavioral effects, and the mechanisms via which CORT and HIPP structure relate to HIPP function.
KW - Corticosterone
KW - Early handling
KW - Hippocampus
KW - Nonhandling
KW - Repeated maternal separation
KW - Spatial cognition
KW - Wistar rat
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0036223956&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/S0197-4580(01)00320-7
DO - 10.1016/S0197-4580(01)00320-7
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AN - SCOPUS:0036223956
SN - 0197-4580
VL - 23
SP - 457
EP - 466
JO - Neurobiology of Aging
JF - Neurobiology of Aging
IS - 3
ER -