Age-dependent effects of chronic traumatic and social isolation stress on mice social behavior

Modern people are exposed to various stressful situations. Stress is a significant factor in emotional changes and social behavior and is associated with imbalances in physiological and psychological homeostasis, including brain function and structure. Stress has multiple causes, each of which has different impacts on social behavior throughout life. However, little is known about how stress influences social behavior across the life cycle. To understand this further, this study exposed mice to chronic stress at three different ages: adolescence, early adulthood, and adulthood. Chronic stresses were induced by combining chronic traumatic and isolation stress. Chronic stress has been shown to enhance social dominance behavior, especially in adolescence, and changes in the expression of genes and proteins, including Fabp7 and Cxcl12, were observed to change in the opposite direction compared to adulthood, confirming that it is related to changes in social dominance behavior. This study may provide important insights into factors related to adolescence social behavior abnormalities.