artículo científico
Individual differences in the immobility behavior in juvenile and adult rats are associated with monoaminergic neurotransmission and with the expression of corticotropin-releasing factor receptor 1 in the nucleus accumbens
Fecha
2013Registro en:
1872-7549
0166-4328
10.1016/j.bbr.2013.05.046
Autor
Sequeira Cordero, Andrey
Mora Gallegos, Andrea
Cuenca Berger, Patricia
Fornaguera Trías, Jaime
Institución
Resumen
The study of individual differences provides an important methodological approach to analyze the
neurobehavioral spectrum of a given cohort in order to understand brain function and disease. Based
on immobility time in the forced swimming test (FST) juvenile and adult rats were classified as subgroups
with low and high immobility. Afterwards, we compared behavior, neurochemical parameters,
and gene expression profiles in some brain areas of rats with low and high immobility only. No differences
in the open field test (OFT) were observed between subgroups. Regarding neurochemistry, juvenile
animals with low immobility showed higher accumbal dopamine turnover and lower hippocampal norepinephrine
concentrations, whereas adult rats only differed for accumbal dopamine, although in an
opposite direction from that observed in juveniles. Moreover, the expression of accumbal corticotrophinreleasing
factor receptor 1 (CRFR1) was significantly different in animals with low and high immobility
at both ages, with animals less immobile showing higher levels of CRFR1 mRNA levels. Taken together,
our findings suggest that differences in monoaminergic neurotransmission and CRFR1 expression are
associated with the coping strategy adopted by the animal and with the tendency to develop depressionrelated
behaviors. Concerning monoaminergic neurotransmission such association is modulated by age,
and such modulation could be related to the differential behavioral results observed between juvenile
and adult rats.