Competition hybridization studies on brain ribonucleic acid from rats reared in enriched and deprived environments.

Abstract

Abstract— Male rats of the Sprague‐Dawley strain were weaned at 21–23 days of age and littermates were assigned to enriched or deprived environments. At days 7, 20 and 35 following separation of littermates, the brain RNA from 3 out of each group of 12 enriched or deprived rats was pulse‐labelled with [5‐3H]uridine, while the remaining rats in each group were used as a source of unlabelled competitor RNA. The RNA was used in DNA:RNA hybridization studies involving simultaneous competition between labelled RNA and varying amounts of unlabelled competitor RNA from the brains of enriched or deprived rats. The number of groups of enriched and deprived rats studied was 2 each at day 7 and at day 20, while 3 groups were employed at the 35‐day interval. No significant qualitative differences were found between RNA from the brains of enriched and deprived rats.