Characteristics of the Formation of the Anxious-Depressive State in an Experimental Model of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Prenatally Stressed Male Rats

摘要

The formation of the anxious-depressive state in a “stress-restress” model was studied in adult prenatally stressed male rats, this being an experimental analog of human post-traumatic stress disorder. Male rats born to control females and to females subjected, on days 15-19 of pregnancy, to daily 1-h restraint stress were subjected to severe combined stress with subsequent restress after seven days. Both control and prenatally stressed males formed a pathological state 10 days after restress, with increases in the levels of anxiety and depressive behavior, as well as inhibition of the stress-related activity of the hypothalamohypophyseal-adrenocortical system due to activation of pathological negative feedback. However, the signs of post-stress pathology were longer-lasting in prenatally stressed animals, as evidenced by a decrease in the basal corticosterone level and an increase in anxiety still present 20 days after restress. These results lead to the conclusion that prenatal stress promotes the development of major behavioral and hormonal pathology in the stress-restress paradigm in adult animals.