title: Subchronic and mild social defeat stress alter mouse nest building behavior.
abstract: Behavioral and physiological evaluations of animal models of depression are essential to thoroughly understand the mechanisms of depression in humans. Various models have been developed and characterized, and the socially defeated mouse has been widely used for studying depression. Here, we developed and characterized a mouse model of social aversion using a subchronic and mild social defeat stress (sCSDS) paradigm. Compared to control mice, sCSDS mice showed significantly increased body weight gain, water intake, and social aversion to dominant mice on the social interaction test. We observed nest building behavior in sCSDS mice using the pressed cotton as a nest material. Although sCSDS mice eventually successfully built nests, the onset of nest building was severely delayed compared to control mice. The underlying mechanism of this significant delay in nest building by sCSDS mice is unclear. However, our results demonstrate that nest building evaluation is a simple and useful assay for understanding behavior in socially defeated mice and screening drugs such as antidepressants.
authors.affiliation: College of Agriculture, Ibaraki University, Ami, Ibaraki 300-0393, Japan.
authors.forename: Hikari
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Otabi
authors.affiliation: College of Agriculture, Ibaraki University, Ami, Ibaraki 300-0393, Japan; Ibaraki University Cooperation between Agriculture and Medical Science (IUCAM), Ami, Ibaraki 300-0393, Japan.
authors.forename: Tatsuhiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Goto
authors.affiliation: College of Agriculture, Ibaraki University, Ami, Ibaraki 300-0393, Japan; Ibaraki University Cooperation between Agriculture and Medical Science (IUCAM), Ami, Ibaraki 300-0393, Japan; United Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Fuchu-city, Tokyo 183-8509, Japan.
authors.forename: Tsuyoshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Okayama
authors.affiliation: College of Agriculture, Ibaraki University, Ami, Ibaraki 300-0393, Japan; Ibaraki University Cooperation between Agriculture and Medical Science (IUCAM), Ami, Ibaraki 300-0393, Japan; United Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Fuchu-city, Tokyo 183-8509, Japan.
authors.forename: Daisuke
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kohari
authors.affiliation: College of Agriculture, Ibaraki University, Ami, Ibaraki 300-0393, Japan; Ibaraki University Cooperation between Agriculture and Medical Science (IUCAM), Ami, Ibaraki 300-0393, Japan; United Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Fuchu-city, Tokyo 183-8509, Japan. Electronic address: atsushi.toyoda.0516@vc.ibaraki.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Atsushi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Toyoda
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008813:Mice, Inbred ICR; D009425:Nesting Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D012919:Social Behavior; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Attention; Depression; Mouse; Nest building; Social defeat stress