Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2011 Apr 21;6(4):e19058.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0019058.

Effects of an early handling-like procedure and individual housing on anxiety-like behavior in adult C57BL/6J and DBA/2J mice

Timothy J Flanigan  1 , Melloni N Cook
Affiliations

Effects of an early handling-like procedure and individual housing on anxiety-like behavior in adult C57BL/6J and DBA/2J mice

Timothy J Flanigan et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Manipulations of rearing conditions have been used to examine the effects of early experience on adult behavior with varying results. Evidence suggests that postnatal days (PND) 15-21 are a time of particular susceptibility to environmental influences on anxiety-like behavior in mice. To examine this, we subjected C57BL/6J and DBA/2J mice to an early handling-like procedure. Pups were separated from dams from PND 12-20 for 30 minutes daily or received standard care. On PND 21, pups were weaned and either individually- or group-housed. On PND 60, anxiety-like behavior was examined on the elevated zero-maze. Although individually-housed animals took longer to enter an open quadrant of the maze, they spent more time in the open than group-housed animals. Additionally, we observed a trend of reduced anxiety-like behavior in C57BL/6J, but not DBA/2J mice that underwent the handling-like procedure.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Percentage of Time in Open Quadrants of Elevated Zero-Maze.
Data are presented as means ± SEM. A. Sex x strain interaction. Groups that do not share a common lowercase letter are significantly different at the level, p<.05. B. Main effect of housing, p<.05. C. Interaction of Strain x Handling. The effect did not quite reach statistical significance, p = .065. B6  =  C57BL/6J, D2  =  DBA/2J, Group  =  Group Housed, Individual  =  Individually Housed, No EHLP  =  undisturbed other than routine animal care, EHLP  =  Early Handling Like Procedure.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Anisman H, Zaharia MD, Meaney MJ, Merali Z. Do early-life events permanently alter behavioral and hormonal responses to stressors? Int J Dev Neurosci. 1998;16:149–164. - PubMed
    1. Gordon HW. Early environmental stress and biological vulnerability to drug abuse. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2002;27:115–126. - PubMed
    1. Bremner JD, Vermetten E. Stress and development: Behavioral and biological consequences. Dev Psychopathol. 2001;13:473–489. - PubMed
    1. Kaufman J, Plotsky PM, Nemeroff CB, Charney DS. Effects of early adverse experiences on brain structure and function: Clinical implications. Biol Psychiatry. 2000;48:778–790. - PubMed
    1. Sánchez MM, Ladd CO, Plotsky PM. Early adverse experience as a developmental risk factor for later psychopathology: Evidence from rodent and primate models. Dev Psychopathol. 2001;13:419–449. - PubMed

Publication types