The Effects of Rearing in a Shelved Environment on Behavioral and Physiological Markers of Welfare in Rats (Rattus norvegicus).

Autor:	Bigelow LJ; Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, lbigelow@upei.ca., Pope EK; Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada., Knight JB; Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada., Rock JE; Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada., MacLeod SK; Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada., Bernard PB; Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada.
Jazyk:	angličtina
Zdroj:	Developmental neuroscience [Dev Neurosci] 2022; Vol. 44 (6), pp. 557-565. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Jul 18.
DOI:	10.1159/000525967
Abstrakt:	Early-life experiences are critical modifiers of development. An important component of early-life experience is the nature of maternal interactions, which can be modified by stress. During rearing, mothers are typically allocated to single-level cages where they are readily accessible to pups, a potentially stressful scenario not reflective of nature. Accordingly, mothers regularly removed from the rearing environment interact differently with their offspring, leading to long-term changes in offspring physiology and behavior. Such changes commonly include modifications within the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, of which corticosterone is a major component. Modifications in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis may also be manifested through changes in affective behavior and assessed via tests such as the open field and elevated plus maze as well as via ultrasonic vocalization (USV) analysis. As a means of assessing the impact of rearing in a shelved environment, we allocated mothers to standard single-level cages or cages with an integrated shelf, which allowed the mother to temporarily escape pups. While there were no differences in fecal cortico-sterone, behavior in the elevated plus maze, or USVs, male rats reared in standard cages weighed more, and all standard single-level housed rats spent more time in the center of the open field. The observed differences indicate that allocating nursing mothers to shelved environments throughout the postnatal period has long-lasting effects on offspring behavior that must be considered when establishing dam enrichment protocols. (© 2022 S. Karger AG, Basel.)
Databáze:	MEDLINE
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