Infant maltreatment induces abnormal behavioral phenotypes in juvenile rats

COLAPIETRO A; GRILLO BALBOA J; CANTARELLI VI; PONZIO MF; ANTONELLI MC; PALLARES ME

Encuentro; XXVII Reunión Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias (SAN); 2022

Infant maltreatment is a public health problem with long-term healthconsequences. It generates a dysregulation of the stress system response,which predisposes individuals to develop emotional disorders later in life. Todate, few studies have examined the effects of infant maltreatment in youngerindividuals, as well as its relevance for the early onset of stress-relateddisorders. In this study, we used the scarcity-adversity model (SAM) duringpostpartum days 8-12 to induce maltreatment, and assessed offspringbehavioral phenotype at juvenile age. As expected, dams exposed to SAM hadenhanced fragmented and violent behavior towards their offspring. At postnatalday 13, SAM treatment increased corticosterone levels in exposed pupscompared to control ones. At juvenile age, SAM offspring of both sexes spentmore time in unsupported rearing in the Open field test, spent less timeswimming and climbing and more time immobile in the Forced swimming test,and consumed more sucrose compared to controls in the Sucrose Preferencetest. No differences were found between groups in the Light/dark box and in theElevated plus maze tests. Our results show that exposure to maltreatmentduring infancy has consequences on depressive-like behavior and exploratoryactivity at juvenile age. These data about emerging behaviors may be useful forthe development of anticipated interventions that prevent the establishment ofpsychopathologies later in life.