Maternal Separation Induced Visceral Hypersensitivity Evaluated via Novel and Small Size Distention Balloon in Post-weaning Mice

Abstract

Early life stress (ELS) disposes to functional gastrointestinal diseases in adult, such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Maternal separation (MS) is a well-known animal model of IBS and has been shown to induce visceral hypersensitivity in adult rats and mice. However, to the best of our knowledge, it has not been reported whether MS induces visceral hypersensitivity in young mice, such as the post-weaning mice. Moreover, the method for evaluation of visceral sensitivity also has not been described. Accordingly, the present study aims to evaluate the visceral sensitivity caused by MS in post-weaning mice and develop a novel and small size distention balloon for assessment of visceral sensitivity of such mice. Male pups of C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into two groups, MS (n = 12) and non-separation (NS) (n = 10). MS pups were separated from the dams through postnatal days (PND) 2 to 14, while NS pups were undisturbed. After, all pups stayed with respective dams and were weaned at PND 22. Visceral sensitivity was evaluated by colorectal distention (CRD) with a novel and small size distention balloon at PND 25. The threshold of abdominal withdrawal reflex (AWR) scores were significantly lower in MS than NS. In addition, AWR scores at different pressures of CRD were significantly higher in MS than NS. The results demonstrate that MS induced visceral hypersensitivity in post-weaning mice. The designed small size distention balloon for evaluation of visceral sensitivity is of significance to further study the pathophysiology of IBS from early life to adulthood.

Modulation of colonic function in irritable bowel syndrome rats by electroacupuncture at ST25 and the neurobiological links between ST25 and the colon

“…Eight rats were selected for the AWR score. Based on previous studies ( Al-Chaer et al, 2000 ; Yu et al, 2012 ; Tao et al, 2021 ), the sensitivity of the colon to colorectal distention (CRD) was evaluated by calculating the AWR score. Before the experiment, rats were given free access to water but were food-deprived for 8–12 h. Rats were slightly anesthetized with 1% isoflurane (RWD Life Science Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, China) in an induction box.…”

Early life stress induces irritable bowel syndrome from childhood to adulthood in mice

“…MS was implemented as previously described ( Riba et al, 2018 ; Wong et al, 2019 ; Tao et al, 2022a ). For the protocol of MS please refer to the Supplementary data .…”

“…Maternal separation (MS) is a classic animal model of IBS, which effectively mimics ELS ( Riba et al, 2018 ; Wong et al, 2019 ; Huang S. T. et al, 2021 ; Tao et al, 2022a ). Using MS model, some of the pathogeneses of IBS were widely studied, such as visceral hypersensitivity ( Wu et al, 2020 ; Huang S. T. et al, 2021 ; Wang et al, 2022 ; Tao et al, 2022a ), intestinal hyperpermeability ( Kuti et al, 2020 ; Torres-Maravilla et al, 2022 ), intestinal dysmotility ( Bülbül and Sinen, 2021 ), intestinal dysbiosis ( Rincel and Darnaudéry, 2020 ; Park et al, 2021 ), and anxiety-like and depressive-like behaviors ( Zhou et al, 2022 ; Favoretto et al, 2023 ). Also, Riba et al ( Riba et al, 2018 ) systematically studied the influence of MS on the function of the intestine, mimicking IBS’s main features, including intestinal hyperpermeability, visceral hypersensitivity, microbiota dysbiosis, bile acid malabsorption, and low grade inflammation in the intestine.…”

“…One study reported that MS rats showed significant visceral hypersensitivity from the post-weaning period to adult ( Yi et al, 2017 ). Moreover, our previous study using a novel distention balloon to evaluate visceral hypersensitivity found that MS induced visceral hypersensitivity in post-weaning mice ( Tao et al, 2022a ). Together, these results suggested that visceral hypersensitivity in the early life, such as post-weaning period, might play a more meaningful pathophysiologic role in the formation of adult IBS.…”

Hypnotherapy and IBS: Implicit, long-term stress memory in the ENS?

“…There is also growing evidence that perinatal, postnatal, and early age conditions can have an essential role in the development of IBS. Various studies have pointed out that MS, as an early adverse life event, can be particularly dangerous to newborns and induce visceral hypersensitivity [ [138] , [139] , [140] , [141] , [142] ].…”