Gender-specific effects of social housing in rats after chronic mild stress exposure

Westenbroek, Christel; Horst, Gert J. Ter; Roos, Marjon H.; Kuipers, Sjoukje D.; Trentani, Andrea; Boer, Johan A. den

doi:10.1016/s0278-5846(02)00310-x

Cited by 90 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 69 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In socially housed females, chronic stress exposure increased adrenal weight, however not to the same level as in isolated female rats. Furthermore, isolated control and stressed females showed a higher activity level in the open field than socially housed females, corroborating previous results (Westenbroek et al, 2003c). Females show a different response than the male rats with respect to the behavioral parameter dtime in tube.T The most stressed female rats, as indicated by adrenal weights, spent the least time in the shelter of the tube.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…Exposure to stress reduced the growth rate of both individually and socially housed males, which is supported by other studies (Harro et al, 1999;Kuipers et al, 2003;Westenbroek et al, 2003c), and was also accompanied by adrenal hypertrophy showing the chronicity of the stress. Social housing with a female slightly reduced the growth rate in control males, which is likely due to increased activity in the home cage.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

“…In the present study, we investigated how the effects of mixed gender pair-housing during chronic stress exposure influenced behavior by measuring locomotor activity during repeated open field tests. Rats were subjected to an open field test with a slight modification in comparison to the previous experiment (Westenbroek et al, 2003c), in that a tube was placed at the border of the open field arena to provide a shelter area. It was hypothesized that, since rats tend to avoid open spaces and show thigmotaxic behavior, stress would increase the time the rats spent in the tube.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Pair-housing of male and female rats during chronic stress exposure results in gender-specific behavioral responses

Westenbroek

Snijders

Boer

et al. 2005

Hormones and Behavior

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Pair-housing of male and female rats during chronic stress exposure results in gender-specific behavioral responses

Westenbroek

Snijders

Boer

et al. 2005

Hormones and Behavior

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Women with a history of long-term depression have a 10-15% reduction in hippocampal volume compared with controls (Sheline, 1996;Sheline et al, 1999) and are almost twice as likely as men to be diagnosed with depression (Heller, 1993;Kessler et al, 1993;Weissman et al, 1993). In animal models, depressive-like symptoms are often preceded by chronic stress or stressful life events, and females cope differently with stressful situations than males (Westenbroek et al, 2003). Although recent research has begun to focus on such gender differences, care and treatment of women has been derived predominantly from research on males.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Chronic stress enhances spatial memory in ovariectomized female rats despite CA3 dendritic retraction: Possible involvement of CA1 neurons

et al. 2005

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Emerging data report sex differences in how the brain responds to chronic stress. Here, we investigated the effects of chronic restraint stress (6 h/day/21 days) on hippocampal morphology and function in ovariectomized female rats. Chronic restraint stress caused CA3 apical dendritic retraction in short-and long-shafted neurons, while it reduced basal dendritic arbors in long-shafted neurons only. Chronic restraint did not affect CA1 dendritic arborization, although it increased the proportion of CA1 spine heads compared with controls. Both stressed and control animals performed well on the Y-maze, a spatial memory task. However, chronic stress enhanced Y-maze performance compared with controls, which may reflect facilitated spatial memory or reduced habituation. Ymaze performance correlated with CA1 spine head proportion. This relationship suggests that spatial ability in females may be more tightly coupled with CA1 morphology, which may override the influence of CA3 dendritic retraction. Thus, this research provides additional evidence that CA3 morphology does not always parallel spatial memory.

show abstract

“…Instead, CMS leads to decreases in the consumption of highly palatable foods with subsequent loss in body weight (18)(19)(20). Due to the inherent variability of stress paradigms, it is difficult to map out the hormonal and neurochemical responses to CMS.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis hypersensitivity in female rats on a post-weaning high-fat diet after chronic mild stress

Yang

Qian

2017

Experimental and Therapeutic Medicine

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract.A high-fat diet (HFD) is highly correlated to obesity, metabolic diseases and certain behavioral changes. However, the effects of post-weaning HFD in rats during puberty and the role of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis in this process have remained elusive. The present study hypothesized that the HPA axis mediates the behavioral alterations induced by a post-weaning HFD. To investigate this, female rats were divided into two groups, one of which was fed a HFD from postnatal weeks (PWs) 4-12, while the other group received standard chow. Rats in each group were then subdivided into two subgroups each, and from PW 9-12, animals from one of the two subgroups were subjected to chronic mild stress (CMS), while the other subgroup received no stress. At PW 12, the body weight of rats receiving a HFD but no DMS was significantly higher than that in the control group. The frequency of crossing and rearing in the open field test and the time in the center of the Y-maze were decreased following CMS. Total time to escape was decreased in rats receiving HFD and after CMS. The serum levels of adrenocorticotropic hormone and corticosterone were increased in rats receiving an HFD and after CMS, and the mRNA levels of corticotropin-releasing hormone and arginine vasopressin in the hypothalamus were increased in the HFD + CMS group compared to that in the control group. The mRNA expression of glucocorticoid receptor (GR) in the hippocampi of rats in the HFD + CMS group was significantly decreased and the mineralocorticoid receptor/GR ratio was increased compared to that in the groups receiving either CMS or a HFD. In conclusion, these results indicated that female rats fed a post-weaning HFD showed HPA axis hypersensitivity under CMS, which may mediate behavioral alterations.

show abstract

Gender-specific effects of social housing in rats after chronic mild stress exposure

Cited by 90 publications

References 69 publications

Pair-housing of male and female rats during chronic stress exposure results in gender-specific behavioral responses

Pair-housing of male and female rats during chronic stress exposure results in gender-specific behavioral responses

Chronic stress enhances spatial memory in ovariectomized female rats despite CA3 dendritic retraction: Possible involvement of CA1 neurons

Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis hypersensitivity in female rats on a post-weaning high-fat diet after chronic mild stress

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About