Acta Pharm. 68 (2018) 381-388
Short communication
Sensitivity to diazepam after a single
session of forced swim stress in weaning
Wistar rats
BLANDINA BERNAL-MORALES, GABRIEL GUILLÉN-RUIZ, JONATHAN CUETO-ESCOBEDO,
JUAN FRANCISCO RODRÍGUEZ-LANDA and CARLOS M. CONTRERAS
1 Laboratorio
de Neurofarmacología, Instituto de Neuroetología, Universidad Veracruzana,
Xalapa, México
2 Unidad
Periférica Xalapa, Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, Universidad
Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Neuroetología, Universidad
Veracruzana, Xalapa, México
Accepted March 18, 2018
Published online April 11,
2018
The present study investigated the sensitivity to stress and diazepam in weaning (21-day old) Wistar rats. A single 15-min session of forced swimming was used to induce anxiety-like behavior. The group that was forced to swim exhibited an increase in anxiety-like behavior in the elevated plus maze (EPM) and open field test (OFT) compared to the non-stressed group. Diazepam (1 h before the tests) reduced anxiety-like behavior in rats forced to swim compared to the vehicle stressed group. The dose-response curve for diazepam indicated that the 0.5 mg kg–1 dose (1 h before the EPM and OFT) was the minimum effective dose in reducing anxiety-like behavior without altering locomotor activity in weaning rats. These results indicate that weaning rats can develop anxiety-like behavior after a brief, single session of stress, and that rats at this age are seemingly more sensitive to diazepam than adult rats, which may be taken into account for clinical applications.
Keywords: anxiety, diazepam,
weaning rats, elevated plus maze, forced swim, open field test