DIFFERENTIAL EFFECTS OF NEONATAL HANDLING ON ANXIETY, CORTICOSTERONE RESPONSE TO STRESS, AND HIPPOCAMPAL GLUCOCORTICOID AND SEROTONIN (5-HT)2A RECEPTORS IN LEWIS RATS

Past findings indicating that environmental and genetic factors are crucial variables in the neonatal handling paradigm are reinforced, with the failure to detect early handling-induced increases in hippocampal GR binding in 3-week old Lewis and Long Evans rats.

Abstract

Neonatal handling (during the first 3 weeks of age) has been reported by others to diminish the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) responsivity to stress in adult Long Evans rats, an effect involving a serotonin (5-HT)2A receptor-mediated increase in glucocorticoid receptor (GR) gene expression in the frontal cortex and the hippocampus. In addition, handled animals may also display enduring reductions in anxiety-related behaviours, including in the elevated plus-maze. We have thus analysed the aforementioned neuroendocrine and behavioural consequences of neonatal stress in male and female adult Lewis rats, a strain characterised by its high anxiety and its hyporesponsive HPA axis. Plasma corticosterone, but not behavioural, responses to an elevated plus-maze test were decreased in handled rats. Besides, hippocampal mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) and GR binding capacities were not different between handled and non-handled Lewis rats, an observation which could be extended to our adult Long Evans rats. Lastly, neither hippocampal nor cortical 5-HT2A receptor binding capacities in adult Lewis rats were affected by prior handling. In keeping with the failure to detect early handling-induced increases in hippocampal GR binding in 3-week old Lewis and Long Evans rats, the present study reinforces past findings indicating that environmental and genetic factors are crucial variables in the neonatal handling paradigm.