INVESTIGADORES
ODEON Maria Mercedes
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Postnatal stress, alcohol intake and anxiety in rats
Autor/es:
ODEON, MM; ACOSTA, GB
Lugar:
Huerta grande, Córdoba
Reunión:
Congreso; XXVIII Congreso anual de la Sociedad Argentina de investigación en Neurociencia; 2013
Institución organizadora:
SAN
Resumen:
Adverse events early in life have been linked to a maladaptive stress response in
adulthood that can predispose individuals to psychiatric and physiological
disorders. Postnatal stress (PS) shows a variety of long-term neurochemical,
hormonal and behavioural changes. The main physiological change is the release of
glucocorticoids through activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)
axis. We evaluated the consequences of chronic PS on alcohol intake,
corticosterone (C) levels and anxiety. In PS, from postnatal day 2 the pups were
separated from their mothers and exposed to cold for 1h during 20 days. Then
animals were exposed to a voluntary ethanol (6%) intake for 7 days, 30 days of
washout and then a second 7-day exposure to a voluntary intake. We measured
the volume of intake, C plasmatic levels and anxiety with 3 different tests: elevated
plus maze, open field, light-dark transition. Stressed groups significantly increased
ethanol intake and showed decreased anxiety levels. We observed hormonal
changes in all treatments, C ranged in all groups, showing an alteration in the
hormonal stress response.
These results suggest that an exposure to PS increases alcohol intake and alters the
HPA axis, which could be relevant to behaviour in anxiety tests. Unlike the
anxiogenic effects of stress in adult animals, when the stressor appears early in life
we observed decreased anxiety in adulthood. These results and the decrease in C
levels indicate an attenuate response to stressful and anxiogenic stimuli.