Blood testosterone in rats: Correlation of the level of individual anxiety and its impairment after “death threat”

Abstract

Studies of identical groups of male Wistar rats after preliminary selection to give groups including extreme behavioral types with low and high rankings on the anxiety scale showed that blood testosterone concentrations in intact rats (controls) correlated negatively with anxiety ranking, i.e., minimal hormone concentrations (no greater than 5 nM) corresponded to high levels of anxiety - with a predominance of passive defensive behavioral components on testing. Short-term exposure to a "death threat" situation (sight of a boa attacking and eating two individuals from the group of rats) impaired this correlational relationship in a manner comparable to the sequelae of chronic neuroticization by unavoidable pain stimulation. Impairments were manifest as scatter in measures in low-anxiety animals (3-21 nM). This characteristic, reflecting the multitude of adaptive pathways in the population in threat situations, distinguishes this type of action from neuroticization by unavoidable pain stimulation, which leveled out individual differences and decreased the hormone level.

Endocrine and metabolic function in male Carioca High-conditioned Freezing rats

“…Therefore, we also suggest a possible role for serum testosterone levels in the increase in adiposity detected in the present study. Khonicheva et al [24] argued that serum testosterone levels are negatively correlated with anxiety traits. We detected lower serum testosterone levels in CHF animals than in CTRL animals.…”

Aggression and anxiety in adolescent AAS-treated hamsters: A role for 5HT3 receptors

“…Evidence for a common underlying neural mechanism for aggression and anxiety comes from various lines of research showing that both behaviors are sensitive to androgenic steroid exposure, acutely and over development (Aikey et al, 2002;Clark and Henderson, 2003;Frye and Seliga, 2001;Golubchik et al, 2007;Khonicheva et al, 2008;Melloni and Ricci, 2010). Indeed, previous reports link adolescent AAS-exposure to changes in aggressive behavior as a result of plastic alterations to anterior hypothalamic vasopressin and serotonin (5HT) systems (Grimes and Melloni, 2006;Grimes et al, 2007;Harrison et al, 2000b;Ricci et al, 2007).…”