P.044 Effects of exercise and environmental enrichment in serotonin transporter knock-out mice

Do greater levels of in-cage waking inactivity in laboratory mice reflect a spontaneous depression-like symptom? A pharmacological investigation

“…[33,34]; environmental enrichment: e.g. [25,57]). Furthermore, no additive nor synergistic effect on immobility in forced swim tests were observed when combining environmental enrichment promoting physical exercise (e.g.…”

“…voluntary use of a running wheel, an item present in our enriched cages) with serotonin reuptake inhibiting pharmacological interventions [58]. This would suggest that such interventions may share mechanisms [57,58], such as a rise in extracellular serotonin produced by the pharmacological agents or reduction in serotonin transporter mRNA in running wheelequipped cages [58,59]. Discussing common cellular effects remains speculative here, however, since the behavioral data collected in the current study do not allow us to assess this aspect of the pharmacological action.…”