Effects of LPS on the behavioural stress response of genetically selected aggressive and nonaggressive wild house mice

The bacterial endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS) exerts strong effects on the immune-neuroendocrine network. On behaviour, LPS induces the symptoms of sickness behaviour. Otherwise, LPS challenge shares with psychological stress some common physiological adaptations. The proposal of this study was to analyse the effects of the LPS injection on the behavioural response in the shock-probe defensive burying test of two wild house mouse lines genetically selected for short (SAL) and long (LAL) latency to attack a conspecific. It is known that with previous exposure to stress, each of these lines exhibits behaviour in the burying test that is closely related to their different neuroendocrine patterns of response, with higher expression of burying in the SAL and immobility in the LAL mice. LPS (0.5 ml, 375 μg/Kg) or sterile saline (0.9%) was i.p. injected 3.5 h before the beginning of the test. Non-injected mice were used as a general control of stress of handling and drug effect. The following behaviours were analyzed: defensive burying, immobility, rearing, grooming, exploration and jumping. The procedure of injection was found to be a stimulus that induced behavioural alterations in the SAL and LAL mice. Some behavioural changes induced by saline injection resembled that induced by LPS injection; in both lines an increase in immobility as well as a decrease in burying behaviour was observed. It is noteworthy that the LAL mice increased more their immobility than the SAL mice after saline or LPS injection, and the decrease in burying in the saline and LPS-injected mice was lower in the SAL than in the LAL mice. These results and others discussed in the text suggest that the active coping strategy of SAL mice and the passive coping strategy of the LAL mice, the hallmark of each line in the shock-probe burying test is present after psychological as well as LPS challenge exposure.