Abstract
Background: Numerous studies have demonstrated that environmental enrichment (EE) can mitigate the impacts of chronic stress. In this study, we explored the influence of maternal environmental enrichment on cognitive-behavioral disorders stemming from stress in the offspring rats.
Methods: Upon confirmation of pregnancy through the presence of vaginal plaque, the mother rats were randomly assigned to two groups: Control and enriched environment. The male and female pups were subsequently categorized into stress and non-stress groups. The stress groups experienced 6 hours of daily restraint stress for 21 days starting from the 30th day post-birth (adolescence). Serum corticosterone levels were measured after this period, and behavioral tests were conducted.
Results: Restraint stress resulted in elevated serum corticosterone levels (P-value < 0.05). Data analysis from the elevated plus maze and light-dark box revealed an increase in the time spent and the number of entries into open arms in the offspring of the EE-St group compared to the STD-St group (P-value < 0.05). Light-dark box results demonstrated an increase in step-through latency and the number of entries into the lightbox in the offspring of the EE-St group compared to the STD-St group (P-value < 0.05). During the forced swimming test, immobility time was decreased in the offspring of the EE-St group compared to the STD-St group (P-value < 0.01). In the shuttle box test, step-through latency and the total time spent in the light compartment increased in the offspring in the EE-St group compared to the STD-St group (P-value < 0.01). Lastly, in the novel object recognition test, the time spent next to the new object increased in the EE-St offspring compared to the STD-St offspring (P-value < 0.01).
Conclusion: Environmental enrichment during pregnancy diminished anxiety and depression-like disorders as well as cognitive defects induced by stress in the adolescent offspring rats.
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© 2024, Author(s). This open-access article is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which allows for unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited.