A mild stressor induces short-term anxiety and long-term phenotypic changes in trauma-related behavior in female rats.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Anxiety and anxiety-influenced disorders are sexually dimorphic with women being disproportionately affected compared to men. Given the increased prevalence in women and the documented differences in anxiety and trauma behavior between male and female rats this paper sought to examine the link between stress, anxiety, and fear learning and extinction in female rats. We tested the hypothesis that a mild stressor will induce short-and long-term increases in anxiety and produce long term effects on subsequent fear learning and extinction behavior.

Methods

We induced anxiety in female Sprague- Dawley rats with a short (3 min) exposure to a ball of cat hair infused with 150 μl of cat urine (mild stressor) that elicits innate fear but does not cause fear conditioning.

SUBMITTER: Shanazz K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10507355 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature