Effects of brief daily maternal separation on maternal behavior and stress response.

TORRECILLA M.; QUERCETTI M.; SARTOR T; ZAPATA M. P.; RODRÍGUEZ ECHANDÍA E.L; SOSA M; GONZALEZ JATUFF A

Ciudad de la Punta - San Luis

Congreso; XXVII Reunión Científica Anual de la Sociedad de Biología de Cuyo; 2009

Sociedad de Biologia de Cuyo

Early experiences induce long-lasting effects in rat pups; if pups or the dam are submitted to daily sessions of aleatory stress, adult stress response is modified. Since dam-pups separation is a major component of our stress schedules, we study the effect of short periods, similar to the intervals used in our experiments; longer periods of separation have been reported to exert influence on the pup development. Naïve females were mated, and randomly assigned to Control (C, n= 10) or Separate (Sep, n =6) groups. Litters were culled to 10 pups on postnatal day 2. Dam-pups separation (mainly 10 min) was applied on Sep group between day 2 and 15. Dams were observed in behavioral tests: Basal maternal behavior (day 6), Maternal behavior after 4 hs of separation (day 7) and impairment of activity after 1 min sound stress (day 16). A slight but significant increase of maternal activity was observed in Sep dams, with a greater score of crouching (day 6) and a decrease of negative features (day 7). Activity and exploration under stress response were similar to control. Results suggest: 1.-  Separation, although brief, stimulates maternal behavior. 2.- Brief separation does not represent a stressful situation for the dam. Further studies will focus on later pup behavior.