Prolonged Social Isolation and Social Instability in Adolescence in Rats: Immediate and Long-Term Physiological and Behavioral Effects

Adolescent vulnerability to cardiovascular consequences of chronic social stress: Immediate and long‐term effects of social isolation during adolescence

“…The arterial pressure increase in adolescent animals following a period of social isolation corroborates previous evidence obtained through indirect measurement of blood pressure (Andrews et al, ; Maslova et al, ). However, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate the influence of chronic social stress during adolescence in HR.…”

“…However, the body weight reduction following the isolation in adolescent animals is in contrast to earlier data. Some studies have indicated that isolation‐reared animals are heavier (Jones et al, ; Nakhate et al, ), but most results did not identify an effect of disruption of social bonds on body weight and food intake during adolescence (Hellemans et al, ; Fone and Porkess, ; Ryu et al, ; Maslova et al, ). To the best of our knowledge, this study provides the first evidence that social isolation reduces body weight in adolescent animals.…”

“…However, a limited number of studies investigated the effects of chronic stress during adolescence in cardiovascular function. Preclinical studies demonstrated increased arterial pressure in adolescent animals subjected to social isolation (Shen and Ingenito, ; Maslova et al, ). Although these studies indicated an influence of social stress in cardiovascular function of adolescent, to the best of our knowledge, a possible vulnerability of adolescent to cardiovascular consequences of chronic stress evaluated through comparison of the effects in adolescent and adult has never been examined.…”

Influence of juvenile housing conditions on the ventilatory, thermoregulatory, and endocrine responses to hypoxia of adult male rats

“…control of breathing; maternal separation; environment; chemoreflex; temperature regulation; hormone IN RATS, HOUSING CONDITIONS from weaning until adulthood have a significant impact on animal development and health. Extreme housing conditions, such as social isolation (single housing) or crowding (ϳ3.0 dm 3 /rat), are stressful to the juvenile animal and promote the emergence of anxiety, depression, and hypertension, and augment stress responsiveness at adulthood (7,36,50). By contrast, enrichment of the animal's environment with group housing, various objects, and larger cages facilitates natural social behaviors and improves animal health by making them more resilient to stressful conditions (31).…”

“…In most animal care facilities, however, "standard" housing conditions (postweaning) consist of placing multiple animals within the same cage. The actual housing conditions are rarely documented, but a brief survey of the literature reveals important variations between laboratories: some report housing rats four to five per cage (36), whereas others report placing rats two to three per cage (18).…”