{"title":"Isolated during adolescence: long-term impact on social behavior, pain sensitivity, and the oxytocin system in male and female rats.","authors":"Akseli P Graf, Anita C Hansson, Rainer Spanagel","doi":"10.1186/s13293-024-00655-7","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Adolescent social isolation (ASI) has profound long-term effects on behavioral and neural development. Despite this, the specific long-term impact of ASI during different adolescent stages and across sexes remain underexplored.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Our study addresses this gap by examining the effects of early- and late- adolescent social isolation on both male and female rats. Rats were either isolated (or group-housed) starting from PD 21 (early) or PD 42 (late) for three weeks and then rehoused into groups. In adulthood (PD 90), rats underwent a battery of tests: elevated plus-maze, open field, novel object recognition, social interaction and social recognition memory and hotplate tests. Finally, we analyzed oxytocin receptor binding in several regions in the brains of a second cohort of rats.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Both, male and female rats from the late adolescent social isolation (LASI) groups spent significantly less time interacting in the social interaction test. Additionally, we observed a general decrease in social recognition memory regardless of sex. Both male ASI groups demonstrated heightened thermal pain sensitivity, while the opposite was observed in early adolescent social isolation (EASI) female rats. In the brain, we observed changes in oxytocin receptor (OTR) binding in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN) and paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus (PVT) and central amygdala (CeA) with the largest changes in EASI and LASI female rats.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Our model demonstrates long-lasting alterations on behavior and oxytocin receptor binding levels following ASI providing insights into the long-term effects of ASI in a time- and sex-specific manner.</p>","PeriodicalId":8890,"journal":{"name":"Biology of Sex Differences","volume":"15 1","pages":"78"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-10-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11476712/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Biology of Sex Differences","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s13293-024-00655-7","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ENDOCRINOLOGY & METABOLISM","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Adolescent social isolation (ASI) has profound long-term effects on behavioral and neural development. Despite this, the specific long-term impact of ASI during different adolescent stages and across sexes remain underexplored.
Methods: Our study addresses this gap by examining the effects of early- and late- adolescent social isolation on both male and female rats. Rats were either isolated (or group-housed) starting from PD 21 (early) or PD 42 (late) for three weeks and then rehoused into groups. In adulthood (PD 90), rats underwent a battery of tests: elevated plus-maze, open field, novel object recognition, social interaction and social recognition memory and hotplate tests. Finally, we analyzed oxytocin receptor binding in several regions in the brains of a second cohort of rats.
Results: Both, male and female rats from the late adolescent social isolation (LASI) groups spent significantly less time interacting in the social interaction test. Additionally, we observed a general decrease in social recognition memory regardless of sex. Both male ASI groups demonstrated heightened thermal pain sensitivity, while the opposite was observed in early adolescent social isolation (EASI) female rats. In the brain, we observed changes in oxytocin receptor (OTR) binding in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN) and paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus (PVT) and central amygdala (CeA) with the largest changes in EASI and LASI female rats.
Conclusion: Our model demonstrates long-lasting alterations on behavior and oxytocin receptor binding levels following ASI providing insights into the long-term effects of ASI in a time- and sex-specific manner.
背景:青少年社会隔离(ASI)会对行为和神经发育产生深远的长期影响。尽管如此,不同青春期阶段和不同性别的青少年社会隔离的具体长期影响仍未得到充分探索:我们的研究通过考察青春期早期和晚期社会隔离对雄性和雌性大鼠的影响来填补这一空白。大鼠从青春期21(早期)或42(晚期)开始被隔离(或群居)三周,然后重新群居。在成年期(PD 90),大鼠接受了一系列测试:高架迷宫、开阔地、新物体识别、社会互动和社会识别记忆以及热板测试。最后,我们分析了第二批大鼠大脑中多个区域的催产素受体结合情况:结果:青春期晚期社会隔离(LASI)组的雄性和雌性大鼠在社会互动测试中的互动时间都明显减少。此外,我们还观察到,无论性别如何,大鼠的社会识别记忆力普遍下降。两组雄性 ASI 大鼠的热痛敏感性都有所提高,而青春期早期社会隔离(EASI)雌性大鼠的情况则恰恰相反。在大脑中,我们观察到下丘脑室旁核(PVN)、丘脑室旁核(PVT)和杏仁核中央(CeA)的催产素受体(OTR)结合发生了变化,其中EASI和LASI雌性大鼠的变化最大:我们的模型显示了 ASI 对大鼠行为和催产素受体结合水平的持久改变,这有助于深入了解 ASI 在时间和性别上的特异性长期影响。
期刊介绍:
Biology of Sex Differences is a unique scientific journal focusing on sex differences in physiology, behavior, and disease from molecular to phenotypic levels, incorporating both basic and clinical research. The journal aims to enhance understanding of basic principles and facilitate the development of therapeutic and diagnostic tools specific to sex differences. As an open-access journal, it is the official publication of the Organization for the Study of Sex Differences and co-published by the Society for Women's Health Research.
Topical areas include, but are not limited to sex differences in: genomics; the microbiome; epigenetics; molecular and cell biology; tissue biology; physiology; interaction of tissue systems, in any system including adipose, behavioral, cardiovascular, immune, muscular, neural, renal, and skeletal; clinical studies bearing on sex differences in disease or response to therapy.