The Behavior of Brattleboro Rats*

Brito, Gilberto N. O.; Thomas, Garth J.; Gash, Don M.; Kitchen, J. H.

doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.1982.tb37492.x

Cited by 21 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…The well-known depression test, forced swimming measures also the coping of the animals, however some authors suggested that it reflected effects of learning and memory rather than effects of despair or depression [65]. According to these assumptions the diminished immobility time of AVP-deficient rats during the forced swimming test [37] could be interpreted as changes in temperament [8,26], more active coping style or even learning disabilities. Other depressive-like symptoms, like anhedonia, which is also changed in the Brattleboro rat [48], may also influence memory processes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increase in Alzheimer's related markers preceeds memory disturbances: Studies in vasopressin-deficient Brattleboro rat

Várga

Klausz

Domokos

et al. 2014

Brain Research Bulletin

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Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia in the elderly. For more effective therapy early diagnostic markers could be beneficial. Therefore we compared one year old rats with adults and examined if changes in possible brain markers of AD preceeded memory decline. We also tested if vasopressin-deficient animals were useful model of AD as vasopressin has well known positive effect on memory and AD patient has decreased vasopressin production.We compared adult (3 month) and old (12 month), normal and vasopressin-deficient Brattleboro rats. To receive a comprehensive picture about their memory we examined their social discrimination, object discrimination and conditioned learning abilities (shuttle box).Amyloid precursor protein (APP), mitogen-activated protein kinase 1 (MAPK1), β-actin and tryptophan 2,3-dioxygenase 2 (TDO2) mRNA levels was measured by quantitative PCR.There was no difference between the memory of adult and aged groups. The vasopressin-deficient rats at both ages showed a weaker performance in the course of social and object discrimination tests and a higher escape failure during the shuttle box experiment. The brain marker mRNAs of the elder animals were higher than the levels of the adults, but the absence of vasopressin had no influence on them.Thus, the one year old rats showed elevated levels of AD-related markers, but memory deficits were observable only in vasopressin deficient animals. Vasopressin does not seem to have pathogenic role in AD. Changes in the studied markers might predict later symptoms, although further studies are required for confirmation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increase in Alzheimer's related markers preceeds memory disturbances: Studies in vasopressin-deficient Brattleboro rat

Várga

Klausz

Domokos

et al. 2014

Brain Research Bulletin

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“…There are, however, controversial results, as Brito et al [40] reported no significant differences between BRAT rats and LE rats neither in a delayed alternation task in the T-maze nor in a visual and olfactory discrimination task. Likewise, Laycock et al [41] even found that BRAT rats needed fewer sessions to learn a positively reinforced operant conditioning task.…”

Section: ) Brattleboro Ratsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic Rat Models of Schizophrenia-Relevant Symptoms

Río¹,

Oliveras²,

Cañete³

et al. 2014

WJNS

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It is recognized that developing valid animal models is essential for the research on the neurobiological mechanisms of (and treatments for) psychiatric disorders, even when these are as complex as schizophrenia. To be considered a valid analogue of the disorder, a given model should present good face validity (i.e. similarity of symptoms), good predictive validity (i.e. similarity of treatment effects and potential for discovering novel treatments) and enough construct validity (i.e. the model should help discover neurobiological mechanisms underlying the disorder or some relevant symptoms). The complexity of symptoms (positive, negative and cognitive) of schizophrenia makes it a very difficult task for a model to mimic all the main features of the disorder, but some rodent (mouse and rat) models have behavioural and even neurobiological phenotype characteristics resembling positive-like symptoms, cognitive symptoms and some neurochemical features of schizophrenia. As several recent works have already reviewed the main behavioural and developmental models, as well as the most used drug-induced, lesion-induced and genetic mouse models, the present review focuses on describing the most relevant genetically-based rat models of schizophrenia-relevant symptoms. Thus, we discuss several selective breeding programs leading to rat lines/strains which present impaired prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the acoustic startle response and (in some cases) latent inhibition deficits (both of which may be considered as endophenotypes of schizophrenia related with pre-attentive processes and attention, respectively), as well as other schizophrenia-relevant symptoms (e.g. learning deficits). Evidence is presented for the effects of genetic background on PPI (and other symptoms/phenotypes), as well as for environmental influences on genetic predisposition to enhanced apomorphine (mixed dopamine receptor agonist) effects. Some of the described rat models appear to present face validity and, to a certain extent, construct validity. While efforts should be made to evaluate the predictive validity of these genetic rat models, we propose that they have the advantage (over mouse knockouts, for example) of better representing "normal" genetic, neurobiological and phenotype variation, * Corresponding author.C. del Río et al. 262thus allowing the study of associations among them by means of genetic mapping or gene expression studies.

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“…Malnutrition during perinatal life can program HPA responsiveness to restraint stress in adult rats (9). Females of the di/di phenotype are smaller than those with the di/ + phenotype, have altered water balance and food intake (10), altered lactation, nursing behaviour and temperamental disposition (11). The di/di rats have excessive urination; therefore, they experience daily cage cleaning and associated handling in contrast to the routine cleaning two times a week, when conventional plastic cages and bedding materials are used.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maternal Genotype Influences Stress Reactivity of Vasopressin‐Deficient Brattleboro Rats

Zelena¹,

Mergl²,

Makara³

2003

J Neuroendocrinology

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The role of vasopressin, cosecreted with corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), in stress is debated, because both normal as well as reduced adrenocorticotropin hormone (ACTH) rise to an acute challenge has been reported in Brattleboro rats genetically lacking vasopressin (di/di). Because di/di pups could be born either from di/+ (heterozygous) or from di/di mothers, and maternal influence is known to modify adult responsiveness, we investigated whether the influence of maternal genotype could explain the variability. Adult rats from mothers with different genotypes were stressed with 60 min restraint and trunk blood was collected for measuring hormone content by radioimmunoassay at the end of stress. All offspring of di/+ mothers had similar ACTH responses to restraint, while the di/di rats born to, and raised by di/di mothers showed reduced ACTH reactivity to restraint. The di/di rats showed elevated water turnover and required a daily cage cleaning every day, which meant frequent handling. To offset the role of handling, all rats had daily cage cleaning in the next series, but the results were the same as in the first series. To investigate whether lactation, the behaviour of the mother or some other factor during the pregnancy is responsible for the differences, pups from di/+ dams were raised by di/di foster mothers and vice versa. We found that the genotype of parental mother is more important than that of the foster mother. The corticosterone and prolactin elevation normally seen after acute stress was unchanged by family history, maternal or personal genotype. Furthermore, in studies with mutant animals, the rearing conditions should be controlled by the experimenter. In experiments with Brattleboro rats, the use of homozygous and heterozygous rats from the same litters of di/+ dams and di/di males is recommended. Our results suggest that vasopressin is not indispensable for ACTH release, and that the di/di genotype of the parental mother can decrease the stress reactivity of the di/di Brattleboro rats.

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The Behavior of Brattleboro Rats*

Cited by 21 publications

References 10 publications

Increase in Alzheimer's related markers preceeds memory disturbances: Studies in vasopressin-deficient Brattleboro rat

Increase in Alzheimer's related markers preceeds memory disturbances: Studies in vasopressin-deficient Brattleboro rat

Genetic Rat Models of Schizophrenia-Relevant Symptoms

Maternal Genotype Influences Stress Reactivity of Vasopressin‐Deficient Brattleboro Rats

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