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Limited Bedding and Nesting as a Model for Early-Life Adversity in Mice
Published on: July 12, 2024
Effects of brief stress exposure during early postnatal development in balb/CByJ mice: I. Behavioral characterization
Christine F Hohmann1, Amber Hodges, Nakia Beard
1Department of Biology, Morgan State University, 1700 East Cold Spring Lane, Baltimore, MD 21251, USA. christine.hohmann@morgan.edu
Insights
This study introduces a novel rodent model for early life stress, combining brief maternal separation with temperature stress. Neonatally stressed mice showed increased anxiety and aggression, but no cognitive deficits, highlighting complex environmental interactions.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Behavioral Science
- Developmental Psychology
Background:
- Early life stress is implicated in mental health disorders.
- Rodent models of neonatal maternal separation are common but risk metabolic deprivation.
- Existing models may not fully capture the complexity of early environmental influences.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and behaviorally characterize a novel rodent model of early life stress.
- To mitigate nutritional deficiencies associated with traditional maternal separation paradigms.
- To investigate the long-term behavioral effects of combined brief maternal separation and temperature stress.
Main Methods:
- Developed a new paradigm in Balb/CByJ mice combining brief maternal separation with temperature stress.
- Included a within-litter control group not exposed to stress.
- Conducted initial behavioral characterization of stressed and control groups.
Main Results:
- Neonatally stressed mice exhibited increased anxiety, aggression, and locomotion, with decreased exploratory behavior.
- Within-litter controls showed increased exploration of novelty compared to colony-reared controls.
- Cognitive deficits were not observed in the briefly stressed mice.
Conclusions:
- The novel model effectively induces behavioral changes consistent with existing literature, minus cognitive deficits.
- Within-litter controls also displayed behavioral alterations, suggesting complex interactions between early environmental factors.
- This paradigm offers a refined approach to studying the long-term impacts of early life stress without confounding nutritional deficiencies.
Abstract:
Early life stress has been linked to the etiology of mental health disorders. Rodent models of neonatal maternal separation stress frequently have been used to explore the long-term effects of early stress on changes in affective and cognitive behaviors. However, most current paradigms risk metabolic deprivation, due to prolonged periods of pup removal from the dam. We have developed a new paradigm in Balb/CByJ mice, that combines very brief periods of maternal separation with temperature stress to avoid the confound of nutritional deficiencies. We have also included a within-litter control group of pups that are not removed from the dam. The present experiments provide an initial behavioral characterization of this new model. We show that neonatally stressed mice display increased anxiety and aggression along with increased locomotion but decreased exploratory behavior. In contrast, littermate controls show increased exploration of novelty, compared to age-matched, colony-reared controls. Behavioral changes in our briefly stressed mice substantially concur with the existing literature, except that we were unable to observe any cognitive deficits in our paradigm. However, we show that within litter control pups also sustain behavioral changes suggesting complex and long-lasting interactions between different environmental factors in early postnatal life.
