Insular dopamine and DOPAC decrease in rats who live with depressed ones

RUIZ M; PAUTASSI R.M.; GARCIA F; GENOVESE P; COLOMBO M; CALLIARI A; RUIZ P.

Santiago

Congreso; SCHCF + ALACF 2020 joint meeting; 2020

Sociedad Chilena de Ciencias Fisiológicas (SCHCF)

Introduction: Emotional contagion is an affective primitive tool through which an individual can synchronize their physiological,emotional and behavioral state with those of others. This mechanism has been described in both humans and animals, however,is a field mostly unexplored. Objectives: Determine the effects on euthymic rats caused by coexisting with depressed rats; suchconsequences were evaluated through behavioral tests and the quantification of neurobiological markers. Methodology: 40adolescent female Wistar rats were selected and then divided in groups of 8 distributed in 5 boxes, with one box assigned as thecontrol group. In each box, 6 animals were pharmacologically depressed using Reserpine (an amine depletor) and the remaining2 rats were labeled as ?socials?, only being injected with a vehicle. The experiment, conducted at the Biophysics lab (FVET- UdelaR)the lasted 60 days, at the end the animals were euthanized and insula and blood were extracted for further molecular testing. Theprotocol was approved by the ethics committee (CEUA-FVet-UdelaR). Variance analysis was used on the obtained data. Results:Dopamine and DOPAC concentrations were measured in insula by HPLC, revealing that depressed rats had significantly lowerlevels of dopamine (278,02±63,9 vs 685,8±112,9, p