Validation of Wistar-Kyoto rats kept in solitary housing as an animal model for depression using voxel-based morphometry.

ABSTRACT: Major depressive disorder is a common psychiatric condition often resistant to medication. The Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rat has been suggested as an animal model of depression; however, it is still challenging to translate results from animal models into humans. Solitary housing is a mild stress paradigm that can simulate the environment of depressive patients with limited social activity due to symptoms. We used voxel-based morphometry to associate the solitary-housed WKY (sWKY) rat model with data from previous human studies and validated our results with behavioural studies. As a result, atrophy in sWKY rats was detected in the ventral hippocampus, caudate putamen, lateral septum, cerebellar vermis, and cerebellar nuclei (p < 0.05, corrected for family-wise error rate). Locomotor behaviour wa

SUBMITTER: Yoshii T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10864298 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature