Efeitos da separação materna nos comportamentos tipo ansiedade em camundongos adultos

Abstract

Introduction: Exposure to early life stress (ELS) has been considered an environmental factor that is able to shape the brain development, leading to negative and long-lasting consequences. It is believed that ELS, in addition to the recognized structural and functional deleterious effects, may be involved in the increase vulnerability to develop specific behavioral phenotype, such as anxiety and stress-responsiveness. Several molecular and neurobiological targets have been investigated and identified as potential mediators of these effects due ELS. Objectives: The present thesis aims to investigate the maternal separation (MS) effects in the development of anxiety-like behaviors in adult mice. Methods: Here, we presented an experimental study with male Balb/c mice separated from the dam during the first two weeks of life for a daily period of 180 min. MS mice were tested in postnatal day (PND) 60 in multiple anxiety tasks and had their performance were compared to non-separated mice. Results: MS affected different anxiety parameters, especially in the Open-field Test and Light Dark Test. We also found MS effects in physiological measures, such as the number of fecal boli produced during the tasks. Additional measures assessed by the anxiety-related tasks, for example, exploration/gathering information and risk assessment behaviors seem to be affected by exposure to early life stressors. Conclusion: Our findings corroborates prior studies suggesting that ELS, through MS paradigm, could be a risk factor for the development of behavioral phenotypes underpinning mental disorders, manly related to anxiety and stress-responsiveness spectrum.