La separación materna durante la lactancia altera los niveles basales neuroendocrinos en ratas adolescentes y adultas

Introduction: Different animal models including maternal separation during breastfeeding (MSDB) shows that adverse early experiences as abuse, neglect and psychosocial stress, may allow the development of divers psychopathologies. However different neuroendocrine changes are not completely described. Objective: To identify if in rats, MSDB alters the basal levels of neurohormones as corticosterone, ACTH, oxitocine and vasopresine in young (35 days) and adult (90 days). Materials and methods: Wistar rats were separated from their mothers during 2 periods of 3 hours, in the morning and in the afternoon trough 21 days of lactation. When rats were 35 and 90 days old, blood samples were taken from both groups, separated and controls in order to measure each hormone. Results: Corticosterone concentration was higher in adult females in comparison with the rest of the groups and less than concentration that male adult controls. ACTH levels were higher in young separated males and females than in adults. The oxitocin concentration was significantly higher in separated adults females in comparison with the other groups and significantly lower in separated adults males. Related to vasopressin, MSDF groups have low concentration in comparison with young and adult control groups. Conclusion: These results show that early stress related with MSDB in rats, induce changes in basal levels of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis that are different in males and females and those changes depend on the rat age.