Acta Med. 2004, 47: 177-180
Effects of Two Types of Restraint Stress on the Spontaneous Behaviour in Rats
Our previous findings suggested the existence of stressor-specific behavioural and cognitive responses in rats. In the present study, restraint stressor (immobilization, IMO) and restraint stressor combined with partial immersion of rats into water (IMO+C) were applied for 1 hour to Wistar male rats and their spontaneous behaviour was examined in the open field test. The classic behavioural parameters were recorded: crossing, rearing, and resting. When tested 1 and 4 hours after IMO+C, animals exhibited strong suppression of locomotor and exploratory activity (crossing and rearing); partial inhibition of both behavioural variables was found after IMO. Thus, substantial differences were observed in dependence on the length of period between the end of stressor application and the start of testing. In testing performed one week later, the locomotor and exploratory activity levels of both IMO and IMO+C animals corresponded to the control ones. These data suggest a differential behavioural response to both used stressors that may result from their different proportion of psychical and physical components. In conclusion, our results provide other data for the support of differential effects of two types of restraint stressors on spontaneous behaviour of animals exposed to a novel environment.
Keywords
Open field test, Restraint stressor, Restraint/cold stressor, Spontaneous behaviour, Rat, Stress.
Funding
This work was supported by grant from Ministry of Health of Czech Republic I-6627–3 and Institutional support MSM 1111 0000 1.
References
Copyright
Published by the Karolinum Press. For permission to use please write to actamedica@lfhk.cuni.cz.
