[The comparative effect of continuous and intermittent maternal separation on catecholamines blood concentrations...

Study was designed to show the affects of short-term intermittent and/or continuous maternal separation on norepinephrine and dopamine blood concentrations among rat pups. The 128 rat pups on the first, 15th, 21st, and 60th days after birth were investigated. Catheholamins blood concentration were measured by spectral fluorometry. The pathological changes in norepinephrine (NE) and dopamine (DA) plasma concentrations were exposed in both occasions - among rat pups with intermittent as well as with continuous maternal separation but were less pronounced in rat pups exposed to permanent maternal deprivation. The intermittent maternal separation produced a significant increase in plasma NE concentration compared to control non-deprived (p<0,001) and also to permanently deprived rats (p<0,01). While DA concentration, instead of elevation, was decreased in deprived rats. It was significantly lower in continuously deprived animals. The accentuated increase of NE suggests sympathetic nervous system hyperactivity, while decrease of DA indicates discoordination of the dopaminergic and sympathoadrenal systems in deprived pups. Thus, early maternal separation in rat pups may serve to be the stressful stimulus for CNS and alter it function, which produces the behavioral disorders among them.