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
. 2022 Nov 12;10(11):2910.
doi: 10.3390/biomedicines10112910.

Delayed Formation of Neonatal Reflexes and of Locomotor Skills Is Associated with Poor Maternal Behavior in OXYS Rats Prone to Alzheimer's Disease-like Pathology

Tatiana Kozlova  1 , Ekaterina Rudnitskaya  1 , Alena Burnyasheva  1 , Natalia Stefanova  1 , Daniil Peunov  1   2 , Nataliya Kolosova  1
Affiliations

Delayed Formation of Neonatal Reflexes and of Locomotor Skills Is Associated with Poor Maternal Behavior in OXYS Rats Prone to Alzheimer's Disease-like Pathology

Tatiana Kozlova et al. Biomedicines. .

Abstract

Postnatal brain development is characterized by high plasticity with critical windows of opportunity where any intervention may positively or adversely influence postnatal growth and lead to long-lasting consequences later in life. Poor maternal care is among these interventions. Here, we found that senescence-accelerated OXYS rats prone to an Alzheimer's disease-like pathology are characterized by more passive maternal behavior and insufficient care for pups as compared to control (Wistar) rats. OXYS pups demonstrated a delay in physical development (of auricle detachment, of emergence of pelage and incisors, of eye opening, and of vaginal opening in females) and late manifestation of reflexes and locomotor skills. All observed behavioral abnormalities are connected either with poor coordination of limbs' movements or with a decrease in motivation and development of depression-like behavior. It is possible that their manifestations can be promoted by the features of maternal behavior of OXYS rats. Overall, these early-life events may have long-lasting consequences and contribute to neurodegeneration and development of the Alzheimer's disease-like pathology later in life.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; OXYS rat; early ontogenesis; maternal behavior; motor skill; unconditioned reflex.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The scheme of the experiment.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Maternal behavior of OXYS and Wistar rats.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Locomotor activity of OXYS and Wistar pups. (A) The walking distance; (B) the number of pivots. * p < 0.05 as compared to control (Wistar) rats; # p < 0.05 as compared to a previous day; blue arrow: eye opening in Wistar pups; red arrow: eye opening in OXYS pups. The data are presented as the mean ± SEM.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Exploratory activity of OXYS and Wistar pups. * p < 0.05 as compared to control (Wistar) rats; # p < 0.05 as compared to a previous day; blue arrow: eye opening in Wistar pups; red arrow: eye opening in OXYS pups. The data are presented as the mean ± SEM.
Figure 5
Figure 5
The ability of OXYS and Wistar pups to jump. (A) Jumping from a height of 20 cm; (B) jumping from a height of 35 cm; (C) jumping from a height of 50 cm. * p < 0.05 as compared to control (Wistar) rats; # p < 0.05 as compared to a previous day; blue arrow: eye-opening in Wistar pups; red arrow: eye opening in OXYS pups. The data are presented as the mean ± SEM.
Figure 6
Figure 6
The abilities of OXYS and Wistar pups to climb down the rope and rod. (A) Climbing down the rope in the head-up posture; (B) climbing down the rope in the head-down posture; (C) climbing down the rod in the head-up posture; (D) climbing down the rod in the head-down posture. * p < 0.05 as compared to control (Wistar) rats; # p < 0.05 as compared to previous day; blue arrow: eye opening in Wistar pups; red arrow: eye opening in OXYS pups. The data are presented as the mean ± SEM.
Figure 7
Figure 7
The abilities of OXYS and Wistar pups to climb the rope and rod. (A) Climbing the rope; (B) climbing the rod. * p < 0.05 as compared to control (Wistar) rats; # p < 0.05 as compared to a previous day; red arrow: eye opening in OXYS pups. The data are presented as the mean ± SEM.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Duration of immobility in the forced swim test. * p < 0.05 as compared to control (Wistar) rats. The data are presented as the mean ± SEM.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Gordon N. Nutrition and cognitive function. Brain Dev. 1997;19:165–170. doi: 10.1016/S0387-7604(96)00560-8. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Brumley M.R., Kauer S.D., Swann H.E. Developmental plasticity of coordinated action patterns in the perinatal rat. Dev. Psychobiol. 2015;57:409–420. doi: 10.1002/dev.21280. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Helmbrecht M.S., Soellner H., Castiblanco-Urbina M.A., Winzeck S., Sundermeier J., Theis F.J., Fouad K., Huber A.B. A critical period for postnatal adaptive plasticity in a model of motor axon miswiring. PLoS ONE. 2015;10:e0123643. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0123643. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chaudhury S., Sharma V., Kumar V., Nag T.C., Wadhwa S. Activity-dependent synaptic plasticity modulates the critical phase of brain development. Brain Dev. 2016;38:355–363. doi: 10.1016/j.braindev.2015.10.008. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Teixeira R.A., Li L.M., Santos S.L.M., Zanardi V.A., Honorato D.C., Guerreiro C.A.M., Cendes F. Early development destructive brain lesions and their relationship to epilepsy and hippocampal damage. Brain Dev. 2003;25:560–570. doi: 10.1016/S0387-7604(03)00065-2. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources