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Analysis of c-Fos induction in response to social interaction in male and female Fisher 344 rats.

ABSTRACT: Sex differences in the expression of social behavior are typically apparent in adolescent and adult rats. While the neurobiology underlying juvenile social play behavior has been well characterized, less is known about discrete brain regions involved in adult responsiveness to a same sex peer. Furthermore, whether adult males and females differ in their responsiveness to a social interaction in terms of neuronal activation indexed via immediate early gene (IEG) expression remains to be determined. Thus, the present study was designed to identify key sites relevant to the processing of sensory stimuli (generally) or social stimuli (specifically) after brief exposure to a same-sex social partner by assessing IEG expression. Four-month-old male and female Fisher (F) 344 rats (N=38; n=5-8/group) were either left undisturbed in their home cage as controls (HCC), exposed to a testing context alone for 30min (CXT), or were placed in the context for 20min and then allowed to socially interact (SI) with a sex-matched conspecific for 10min. Females demonstrated greater levels of social behavior, relative to males. Analysis of c-Fos induction revealed that females exhibited greater c-Fos expression in the prefrontal cortex, regardless of condition. In many brain regions, induction was similar in the CXT and SI groups. However, in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST), females exhibited greater c-Fos induction in response to the social interaction relative to their male counterparts, indicating a sex difference in responsivity to social stimuli. Taken together, these data suggest that the BNST is a sexually dimorphic region in terms of activation in response to social stimuli.

SUBMITTER: Perkins AE

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5592796 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Analysis of c-Fos induction in response to social interaction in male and female Fisher 344 rats.

Perkins Amy E AE Woodruff Elizabeth R ER Chun Lauren E LE Spencer Robert L RL Varlinskaya Elena E Deak Terrence T

Brain research 20170729

Sex differences in the expression of social behavior are typically apparent in adolescent and adult rats. While the neurobiology underlying juvenile social play behavior has been well characterized, less is known about discrete brain regions involved in adult responsiveness to a same sex peer. Furthermore, whether adult males and females differ in their responsiveness to a social interaction in terms of neuronal activation indexed via immediate early gene (IEG) expression remains to be determine ...[more]

PMID: 28764933

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Project description:An overarching goal of our research has been to develop a valid animal model of alcoholism with similar imaging phenotypes as those observed in humans with the ultimate objective of assessing the effectiveness of pharmacological agents. In contrast to our findings in humans with alcohol use disorders (AUD), our animal model experiments have not demonstrated enduring brain pathology despite chronic, high ethanol (EtOH) exposure protocols. Relative to healthy controls, older individuals with AUD demonstrate accelerating brain tissue loss with advanced age. Thus, this longitudinally controlled study was conducted in 4-month old (equivalent to ~16-year-old humans) and 17-month old (equivalent to ~45-year-old humans) male and female Fisher 344 rats to test the hypothesis that following equivalent alcohol exposure protocols, older relative to younger animals would exhibit more brain changes as evaluated using in vivo structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and MR spectroscopy (MRS). At baseline, total brain volume as well as the volumes of each of the three constituent tissue types (i.e., cerebral spinal fluid (CSF), gray matter, white matter) were greater in old relative to young rats. Baseline metabolite levels (except for glutathione) were higher in older than younger animals. Effects of binge EtOH exposure on brain volumes and neurometabolites replicated our previous findings in Wistar rats and included ventricular enlargement and reduced MRS-derived creatine levels. Brain changes in response to binge EtOH treatment were more pronounced in young relative to older animals, negating our hypothesis. Higher baseline glutathione levels in female than male rats suggest that female rats are perhaps protected against the more pronounced changes in CSF and gray matter volumes observed in male rats due to superior metabolic homeostasis mechanisms. Additional metabolite changes including low inositol levels in response to high blood alcohol levels support a mechanism of reversible osmolarity disturbances due to temporarily altered brain energy metabolism.

Dataset Information

Analysis of c-Fos induction in response to social interaction in male and female Fisher 344 rats.

Publications

Analysis of c-Fos induction in response to social interaction in male and female Fisher 344 rats.

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