Effects of maternal deprivation at different lactation periods on depression behavior and brain catecholamine of rat offsprings / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the effects of maternal deprivation at different time periods in rat pup development on depressions in adults.Methods Newborn SD rat pups were randomly divided into 5 maternal deprivation groups(n=5 in each group) and one control group (n=7).The rat pups in the maternal deprivation groups were separated from their mother for 6 hours in one day,at p0,p5,p 10,p15,p20 respectively,lasting for five days.Then the rats will be screened for depression at the age of 10 weeks,using different behavioral tests,which included forced swim,coat score,sucrose preference test.Norepinephrine concentration in the cerebral spinal fluid was also measured through high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).Results Maternal deprivation for rat pups induced depression like behavior in adults.The floating time during forced swim test increased from(58.5 ±7.5) s in control group to(p0(75.6±9.4) s,p5(150.4±12.5) s,p10(174.5±14.3) s,p15(155.4±11.4)s,p20 (112.4±10.3) s respectively in maternal deprivation groups;and it was significant different among the groups(P＜ 0.01).Compared with the control group(0.87±0.1),the sucrose preference in maternal deprivation groups decreased(p0 (0.73±0.12),p5 (0.53±0.09),p10 (0.5±0.06),p15 (0.54±0.07),p20 (0.67±0.05)).And the coating scores in maternal deprivation groups decreased from 4.5±0.6 in control group to p0(3.3±0.6),p5 (2.3±0.4),p10 (1.9±0.3),p15 (2.4±0.4),p20 (4.4± 0.4).Finally,maternal deprivation also induced low concentration of catecholamine in the cerebral spinal fluid compared with that in control group (p0 (94.5± 11.5) ％,p5 (78.5± 9.6) ％,p10(67.6±±7.4)％,p1S(64.5±6.6)％,p20(88.5±7.5)％,P＜0.01,n=5-7).Conclusion Maternal deprivation at different lactation periods may induce depression behaviors in rat offspring,and also lead to lower concentration of catecholamine in the cerebral spinal fluid.