[Early weaning and adult behavioral disorders in an animal model]

Early weaning (EW) has proven to be a factor that decreases the animal's organic resistance against adverse conditions. Climbing in the forced swimming test (FST) is the active behavior that expresses the will of the rat to escape the stressful situation. A possible association between these two stress factors (EW and FST) has not yet been reported as a plausible model for the study of stress and depression. Under the working hypothesis that EW has possible adult behavioral correlates when associated with the FST, our objective was to analyze the levels of alteration in the active behaviors among groups. 20 Wistar rats (4 month old), were divided into two groups, the early weaned group (G1) and a control group (G2). The unit of analysis (tip), was defined as the number of intended escapes the animal performs in five minutes. We have found the differences stated by our hypothesis, comparing the frequency of scale or escape (tips), from a group with EW to a control group (15.8 +/- 4.15 vs. 21.4 +/- 4.14, p< 0.05). In turn, we found that, among females, the difference was significantly wider. The present study could elucidate under experimental conditions the effect that in adult behavior induces an alteration in the more primary bonds.