Maternal social separation of adolescent rats induces hyperactivity and anxiolytic behavior.

Exposure to early stressful adverse life events such as maternal and social separation plays an essential role in the development of the nervous system. Adolescent Sprague-Dawley rats that were separated on postnatal day 14 from their dam and litters (maternal social separation, MSS) showed hyperactivity and anxiolytic behavior in the open field test, elevated plus-maze test, and forced-swim test. Biologically, the number of astrocytes was significantly increased in the prefrontal cortex of MSS adolescent rats. The hyperactive and anxiolytic phenotype and biological alteration produced by this MSS protocol may provide a useful animal model for investigating the neurobiology of psychiatric disorders of childhood-onset diseases, such as attention deficient hyperactive disorder.