title: Chronic social instability in adult female rats alters social behavior, maternal aggression and offspring development.
abstract: We investigated the consequences of chronic social instability (CSI) during adulthood on social and maternal behavior in females and social behavior of their offspring in a rat model. CSI consisted of changing the social partners of adult females every 2-3 days for 28 days, 2 weeks prior to mating. Females exposed to CSI behaved less aggressively and more pro-socially towards unfamiliar female intruders. Maternal care was not affected by CSI in a standard testing environment, but maternal behavior of CSI females was less disrupted by a male intruder. CSI females were quicker to attack prey and did not differ from control females in their saccharin consumption indicating, respectively, no stress-induced sensory-motor or reward system impairments. Offspring of CSI females exhibited slower growth and expressed more anxiety in social encounters. This study demonstrates continued adult vulnerability to social challenges with an impact specific to social situations for mothers and offspring.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences, Tufts University: Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, North Grafton, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Florent
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pittet
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences, Tufts University: Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, North Grafton, Massachusetts.|Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative Pain Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Jessica A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Babb
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences, Tufts University: Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, North Grafton, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Lindsay
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Carini
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences, Tufts University: Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, North Grafton, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Benjamin C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Nephew
mesh_terms: D000374:Aggression / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D008425:Maternal Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012919:Social Behavior; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000503:physiopathology*
keywords: epigenetics; maternal aggression; maternal care behavior; social behavior; social instability; stress