THE IMPACT OF EARLY LIFE FAMILY STRUCTURE ON PARENTAL CARE BEHAVIOR AND OFFSPRING ANXIETY RESPONSE IN C57BL/6 MICE

RAMIREZ, A.; PASQUETTA, L.M.; MIRANDA MORALES, R.S.; FERREYRA, E.A.

Cordoba

Congreso; Congreso anual SAN 2018; 2018

Sociedad Argentina de Neurociencias

Social attachment plays an important role in progeny development. Different social experiences during lactation and throughout life can affect offspring behavior. We aimed to analyze if mono- or biparental parenting, in C57BL/6 mice, may have a differential impact on adolescent behavior and on the parental care behavior during lactation. Mice were reared in a monoparental (MP, only mother) or biparental (BP, cohabitation of father-mother since copulation) condition until weaning (postnatal day, PD, 21). Litters from both parenting conditions were filmed during PDs 6, 9 and 12 and an ethogram was made taking into account the nest occupancy and the activity of the parents. At PDs 34-37 adolescent animals were evaluated in a modified version of the concentric square field. This test allows simultaneous measurement of different behavioral patterns. The observation of parental care behavior during lactation indicated that mothers MP spent less time in the nest, left the nest alone more time and displayed more self-directed behaviors than mothers BP. BP condition displayed more pup-directed behavior than MP. Analysis of adolescent behavior, indicated that MP subjects displayed more anxiogenic-like behaviors than BP mice. In conclusion, it seems that parenting by mother only implies that pups are more time unattended that, in turn increases anxiety responses during adolescence. Further research is being conducted aimed to analyze the neurobiology corresponding of this phenomenon.