Comparative behavioral changes between male and female postpubertal rats following neonatal excitotoxic lesions of the ventral hippocampus.
Neonatal ventral hippocampal (nVH) lesioned male rat has been used as a model to test the hypothesis that early neurodevelopmental abnormalities lead to behavioral changes putatively linked to schizophrenia. There are significant gender differences in schizophrenia with male and female individuals differing in the age of onset, course and outcome of the disorder. In order to assess whether the behavioral effects of nVH lesions extend to or are different in female rats, we investigated spontaneous locomotion, grooming, social interactions and spatial memory in male and female rats post-pubertally at postnatal day (P) 56 following bilateral ibotenic acid of the ventral hippocampus at P7. The spontaneous locomotor activity in a novel environment of both male and female nVH lesioned rats was significantly enhanced compared to their respective sham-operated controls. In tests of social interactions, the number of encounters was significantly decreased in female lesioned rats, whereas the male nVH lesioned rats showed a significantly reduced duration of active social interactions. Furthermore, Morris water maze test showed a deficit of spatial learning/memory in only male lesioned rats with significant decrease in the latency to find hidden platform. These results suggest that while nVH lesions affect post-pubertal behavior in both sexes of rats, the males appear to be affected to a greater extent than the females underscoring the influence of sex differences in the development of behaviors in the nVH lesioned animals.
Escuela Superior de Medicina del IPN, D.F., Mexico.
Adriana B
AB
Silva-Gómez
Martha
M
Bermudez
Remi
R
Quirion
Lalit K
LK
Srivastava
Ofir
O
Picazo
Gonzalo
G
Flores
D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D004924:Escape Reaction / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D018690:Excitatory Amino Acid Agonists / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005260:Female; D006120:Grooming / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000293:injuries / Q000473:pathology; D007051:Ibotenic Acid / Q000494:pharmacology*; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D011247:Pregnancy; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D013028:Space Perception / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology
D018690:Excitatory Amino Acid Agonists; D007051:Ibotenic Acid