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Effect of Group Housing and Oral Corticosterone Administration on Weight Gain and Locomotor Development in Neonatal Rats

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 January 2023

L A Young ,
G Pavlovska-Teglia ,
G Stodulski  and
J Hau
L A Young
Affiliation:
Laboratory Animal Science and Welfare, Department of Pathology and Infectious Diseases, The Royal Veterinary College, University of London, Royal College Street, London NW1 0TU
G Pavlovska-Teglia
Affiliation:
Laboratory Animal Science and Welfare, Department of Pathology and Infectious Diseases, The Royal Veterinary College, University of London, Royal College Street, London NW1 0TU
G Stodulski
Affiliation:
Laboratory Animal Science and Welfare, Department of Pathology and Infectious Diseases, The Royal Veterinary College, University of London, Royal College Street, London NW1 0TU
J Hau*
Affiliation:
Laboratory Animal Science and Welfare, Department of Pathology and Infectious Diseases, The Royal Veterinary College, University of London, Royal College Street, London NW1 0TU
*
† Contact for correspondence and requests for reprints
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Abstract

To study the influence of maternal stress on neonatal locomotor development, rat pups of mothers housed singly and in groups were treated orally with corticosterone from 2 to 15 days of age. Control animals received almond oil vehicle only. The rat pups were subjected to swim-tests from 8 to 20 days of age to evaluate locomotor development. Swim-test performance demonstrated a retardation of locomotor development in pups treated with corticosterone (P <0.05). Retardation was most marked in the pups from group-housed mothers and between 13 and 15 days of age. Comparing pups not treated with hormones, the pups born to group-housed mothers showed significantly (P <0.05) better performance on swim-testing. The weight gain of pups from group-housed mothers was significantly (P < 0.05) higher than that of pups from individually caged mothers. Corticosteroid treatment had no effect on weight gain.

Keywords

animal modelanimal welfarecorticosterone administrationgroup housingneonatalratstressswim-testweight gain
Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Welfare , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , May 1996 , pp. 167 - 176
Copyright
© 1996 Universities Federation for Animal Welfare

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