Maternal behavior of the mouse dam toward pups: implications for maternal separation model of early life stress.

Maternal behavior of the mouse dam toward pups: implications for maternal separation model of early life stress. Stress. 2017 Oct 18;:1-9 Authors: Orso R, Wearick-Silva LE, Creutzberg KC, Centeno-Silva A, Glusman Roithmann L, Pazzin R, Tractenberg SG, Benetti F, Grassi-Oliveira R Abstract Maternal care is essential for an adequate pup development, as well as for the health of the dam. Exposure to stress in early stages of life can disrupt this dam-pup relationship promoting altered neurobiological and behavioral phenotypes. However, there is a lack of consensus regarding the effects of daily maternal separation (MS) on the pattern of maternal behavior. The aim of this study is to compare the patterns of maternal behavior between mice exposed to MS and controls. BALB/c mice were subjected to MS for a period of 180 min/day from postnatal day 2-7 (n = 17) or designated to be standard animal facility reared (AFR) controls (n = 19). Maternal behaviors were computed as frequency of nursing, licking pups and contact with pups, and nonmaternal behaviors were computed as frequency of actions without interaction with pups and eating/drinking. A total of 18 daily observations of maternal behavior were conducted during these six days, and considering the proportion of maternal and nonmaternal behaviors, an index was calculated. There was no difference when comparing the global index of maternal behavior between the AFR and MS animals b...
Source: Stress - Category: Research Tags: Stress Source Type: research