Behavioural profiles of two Wistar rat lines selectively bred for high or low anxiety-related behaviour

Neuroendocrine and Behavioral Effects of Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in a Psychopathological Animal Model Are Suggestive of Antidepressant-like Effects

“…Thus, we could demonstrate that rTMS-induced effects are not only present in the HAB rat line but are even amplified in the genetically predisposed animal model. In contrast, rTMS-treated LAB animals that innately display rather active stress coping abilities (Liebsch et al 1998a(Liebsch et al , 1998b were unaffected. Our finding that rTMS differentially affected the coping abilities of HAB and LAB rats indicates that these treatment-induced changes are determined by the rats' innate emotionality and coping strategy.…”

“…Experiments were carried out on adult ( n ϭ 65; 358 Ϯ 19 g body weight) male HAB and LAB rats. At the age of 10 weeks, prior to the experiments performed, HAB and LAB rats were tested on the elevated plus-maze (EPM) according to the breeding protocol to confirm the emotional trait (Landgraf et al 1999;Liebsch et al 1998aLiebsch et al , 1998b. Rats were housed in groups of six in the breeding unit of the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry under standard laboratory conditions (12:12 hr light:dark cycle with lights on at 0700, 22 Ϯ 1 Њ C, 60% humidity, pelleted food and water ad libitum).…”

“…All four arms were connected at the center by a 10 ϫ 10 cm square platform. This test has been validated for the detection of emotional responses to anxiogenic and anxiolytic substances (Pellow et al 1985) as well as for the determination of inborn emotionality (Liebsch et al 1998a(Liebsch et al , 1998b. Briefly, it is based on the creation of a conflict between the exploratory drive of the rat and its innate aversion to open, exposed and elevated areas.…”

“…The HAB and LAB lines, differing markedly in their inborn anxiety-related and acute stress coping behaviors (Liebsch et al 1998a(Liebsch et al , 1998b, provide a promising tool for investigating the relationship between inborn emotionality, acute stress coping, physiological and neuroendocrine stress responses and their underlying mechanisms (Liebsch et al 1998a). Moreover, animals genetically predisposed to certain behavioral strategies offer a unique opportunity to test therapeutic agents that are a potential treatment for abnormal behaviors, e.g., in human psychiatric disorders (Gentsch et al 1988).…”

Differential blockade of CRF-evoked behaviors by depletion of norepinephrine and serotonin in rats

“…The attenuation of behaviors following antalarmin pretreatment was only observed in CRF-infused animals and not in aCSF-infused controls indicating that they are likely not due to non-specific effects on locomotion or exploratory behavior. Previous studies have reported anxiolytic effects of CRF 1 receptor antagonists only in pre-stressed animals, or in those tested under stressful conditions, pointing to a possible necessity of a high endogenous CRF tone for the efficacy of CRF receptor antagonists (Dunn and File 1987;Liebsch et al 1998;Menzaghi et al 1994). The findings reported here may describe such an effect, with the anxiolytic efficacy of antalarmin evident on behaviors caused by exogenous CRF administration.…”