Light at night during development in mice has modest effects on adulthood behavior and neuroimmune activation.

Light at night during development in mice has modest effects on adulthood behavior and neuroimmune activation. Behav Brain Res. 2021 Feb 09;:113171 Authors: Chen R, Weitzner AS, McKennon LA, Fonken LK Abstract Exposure to light at night (LAN) can disrupt the circadian system, thereby altering neuroimmune reactivity and related behavior. Increased exposure to LAN affects people of all ages - and could have particularly detrimental effects during early-life and adolescence. Despite this, most research on the behavioral and physiological effects of LAN has been conducted in adult animals. Here we evaluated the effects of dim LAN during critical developmental windows on adulthood neuroimmune function and affective/sickness behaviors. Male and female C57BL/6 J mice were exposed to dim LAN [12:12 light (150 lux)/dim (15 lux) cycle] during early life (PND10-24) or adolescence (PND30-44) [control: 12:12 light (150 lux)/dark (0 lux) cycle]. Behaviors were assessed during juvenile (PND42-44) and adult (PND60) periods. Contrary to our hypothesis, juvenile mice that were exposed to dim LAN did not exhibit changes in anxiety- or depressive-like behaviors. By adulthood, adolescent LAN-exposed female mice showed a modest anxiety-like phenotype in one behavioral task but not another. Adolescent LAN exposure also induced depressive-like behavior in a forced swim task in adulthood in both male and female mice. Additionally, developmental LAN...
Source: Behavioural Brain Research - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Behav Brain Res Source Type: research