[Long-term changes in adaptive behavior of rats after neonatal inflammatory pain].

Abstract

In this study we addressed the tonic nociceptive system functional activity in the formalin test, anxiety- and depression-like behaviors and spatial learning in adolescent male rats exposed in the neonatal development to repeated inflammatory pain peripheral stimulation. The following groups of 25-day-old rats were used after being exposed on days 7 and 8 to: 1) formalin-induced inflammatory pain with maternal separation for 60 min (FS), 2) the same inflammatory pain stimulation without maternal separation (FWS), 3) physiological saline injection with maternal separation for 1 h (SS), 4) physiological saline injection without maternal separation (SWS) and 5) no stimulation (intact rats). The data obtained indicate that pain caused in 7-8-day-old rat pups by formalin injection into the plantar pad of the hind paw manifests by adolescence (day 25 as a strengthened inflammatory response under the analogous painful stimulation in the formalin test, adaptive behavior disorder in the forced swimming test and spatial learning disability. Our findings that a short-term repeated maternal deprivation of the 7-8-day-old rat pups without inflammatory pain increases the depression-like behavior are also of particular interest. Thus, a repeated inflammatory pain during the neonatal development brings about significant changes in the adaptive behaviors studied as well as in spatial learning in adolescent rats.