Abstract
BackgroundAs a first step in determining whether psychogenic stressors might be incorporated into periadolescent mouse models of stress, we evaluated whether a commonly used psychogenic stressor, exposure to red fox urine, alters serum corticosterone levels in periadolescent C57BL/6J and DBA/2J mice.FindingsIn a 1-day experiment, forty-eight 38-day-old C57BL/6J (N = 12 males; N = 12 females) and DBA/2J (N = 12 males; N = 12 females) mice were exposed to 10-min of red fox urine via cotton ball (N = 12 C57BL/6J mice; N = 12 DBA/2J mice) or to a non-saturated cotton ball (N = 12 C57BL/6J mice; N = 12 DBA/2J mice). All mice were sacrificed 15-min after cotton ball exposure and serum was collected for corticosterone assessment. Overall, there was a main effect for strain such that C57BL/6J male and female mice displayed higher corticosterone levels than did male and female DBA/2J mice. There were no main effects for sex or odor exposure. However, there was a significant strain by odor exposure interaction, whereby, within odor-exposed mice, DBA/2J mice displayed lower corticosterone levels (ng/mL) compared to C57BL/6J mice, regardless of sex. Further, among DBA/2J mice, predator odor exposure reduced corticosterone levels compared to no odor exposure.ConclusionsFindings indicate that mouse strain, but not sex, may play an important role in the efficacy of a predator odor among periadolescent mice.
Highlights
As a first step in determining whether psychogenic stressors might be incorporated into periadolescent mouse models of stress, we evaluated whether a commonly used psychogenic stressor, exposure to red fox urine, alters serum corticosterone levels in periadolescent mice
There were no other statistically significant 2- or 3-way interactions. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the effects of predator odor exposure in periadolescent male and female mice
There was a strain by odor exposure interaction such that, among mice exposed to predator odor, DBA/2J mice displayed lower corticosterone levels compared to C57BL/6J mice
Summary
As a first step in determining whether psychogenic stressors might be incorporated into periadolescent mouse models of stress, we evaluated whether a commonly used psychogenic stressor, exposure to red fox urine, alters serum corticosterone levels in periadolescent C57BL/6J and DBA/2J mice. Excretions or scents of predators (e.g., fox, cat, wolf, coyote) reliably signal danger to rodents and exposure to these compounds results in significant neuroendocrine [2,3,4] and behavioral (e.g., freezing; rearing and/or locomotion; digging) [2,3,4,5,6,7] changes indicative of stress These effects are observed in predator odor-. Male and female mice were included in order to examine any sex differences in corticosterone responses to predator odor exposure
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