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Role of early environmental enrichment on the social dominance tube test at adulthood in the rat

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Abstract

Rationale

Environmental enrichment (EE) could influence brain plasticity and behavior in rodents. Whether the early EE may predispose individuals to a particular social hierarchy in the social dominance tube test (SDTT) at adulthood is still unknown.

Objective

The present study directly investigated the influence of EE on competitive success in the SDTT among adult rats.

Methods

Male rats were maintained in EE from postnatal days 21 to 35. Social dominance behavior was determined by SDTT, competitive food foraging test, and mate preference test at adulthood. IBA-1 expression in the hypothalamus was examined using immunohistochemistry and western blot.

Results

EE rats were prone to become submissive during a social encounter with standard environment (SE) rats in the SDTT. No difference was found in food foraging in the competitive food foraging test between SE and EE rats. Male EE rats were more attractive than the SE to the female rats in the mate preference test. IBA-1 expression was found to be decreased in the hypothalamus of EE rats compared to SE group. Infusion of a microglia inhibitor reduced percentage of forward in SE rats in the SDTT. Infusion of DNA methyltransferase inhibitor prevented the development of subordinate status in EE rats and restored the expression of IBA-1 in the hypothalamus.

Conclusions

The results suggest that early EE did not lead to reduced social hierarchy in the male rat. However, EE caused a reduction in the percentage of forward in the SDTT, which might be associated with reduced number of microglia in the hypothalamus.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31371212 to Chang-Qi Li, 81471372 to Fang Li) and the Graduate Research and Innovation Projects of Central South University (2016zzts116 to Zhao-Lan Hu).

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Author notes

  1. Wen-Yu Cao and Zhao-Lan Hu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, School of Basic Medical Science, Central South University, Tongzipo Road 172, Changsha, Hunan, 410013, China

    Wen-Yu Cao, Zhao-Lan Hu, Wen-Juan Zhang, Fu-Lian Huang, Xiao-Qing Qiao, Yan-Hui Cui, Dan Liu, Fang Li & Chang-Qi Li

  2. Laboratory of Clinical Anatomy, University of South China, Hengyang, Hunan, China

    Wen-Yu Cao & Wei Wan

  3. Institute of Neuroscience, Medical College, University of South China, Hengyang, Hunan, China

    Yang Xu

  4. Center for Experimental Medicine, The Third Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Tongzipo Road 138, Changsha, Hunan, China

    Xue-qin Wang

  5. Department of Anesthesia, the Second XiangYa Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China

    Ru-Ping Dai

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  1. Wen-Yu Cao
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  2. Zhao-Lan Hu
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  12. Fang Li
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Correspondence to Fang Li or Chang-Qi Li.

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Cao, WY., Hu, ZL., Xu, Y. et al. Role of early environmental enrichment on the social dominance tube test at adulthood in the rat. Psychopharmacology 234, 3321–3334 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-017-4717-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-017-4717-3

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