title: Differential effects of social isolation upon body weight, food consumption, and responsiveness to novel and social environment in bombesin receptor subtype-3 (BRS-3) deficient mice.
abstract: The effects of social isolation on body weight gain, food consumption, and responsiveness to novel and social environment were assessed in an animal model for obesity, bombesin receptor subtype-3 (BRS-3) deficient mice. In Experiment 1, body weight gain and food consumption of group- and isolation-housed wild-type and BRS-3-deficient mice were compared. In wild-type mice, group-housed animals showed greater mean body weight gain and food consumption than did the isolation-housed cohort in the early stage of the experiment, whereas in BRS-3-deficient mice, the isolation-housed mice showed greater body weight gain and food consumption than the group-housed cohort by prolonged isolation housing. In Experiment 2, isolation-housed wild-type mice exhibited increased stereotypic and vertical movements relative to group-housed subjects in a novel environment, but this effect was not observed in BRS-3-deficient mice. In Experiment 3, when social response was assessed in animals housed in isolation, BRS-3-deficient mice exhibited lower social responses than did wild-type mice. We conclude that BRS-3-deficient mice and wild-type mice are differentially affected by social isolation. These results suggest that BRS-3 expression in the CNS may affect the neural mechanisms that regulate isolation effects in wild-type animals.
authors.affiliation: Department of Degenerative Neurological Diseases, National Institute of Neuroscience, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, 4-1-1 Ogawahigashi, Kodaira, Tokyo, Japan. yamada@ncnp.go.jp
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yamada
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ohki-Hamazaki
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wada
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D001835:Body Weight / Q000502:physiology*; D004435:Eating / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology; D010101:Oxygen Consumption / Q000502:physiology; D018004:Receptors, Bombesin / Q000172:deficiency* / Q000235:genetics*; D012931:Social Environment; D012934:Social Isolation / Q000523:psychology*; D013239:Stereotyped Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D015430:Weight Gain
chemical_list: D018004:Receptors, Bombesin; C107120:bombesin receptor subtype 3