Maternal behavior of SHR rats and its relationship to offspring blood pressures.

In Part I of this study maternal behavior of 15 spontaneously hypertensive (SHR) and 11 Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rat mothers was recorded throughout the preweaning period. SHR mothers were observed: 1) in arched-and blanket-nursing postures more often, and in passive-nursing posture less often, 2) licking their pups more often, and 3) resting less often. Further, SHR mothers retrieved their pups more quickly than did WKY. In the second part of this study we found that a composite maternal behavior score, derived from summing occurrences of mother/pup contact, arched-nursing, and pup-licking, was positively correlated with the offspring blood pressures. This relationship, which accounted for 43.5% of the variance in adult blood pressure, suggests that certain types of interactions between mothers and their pups may contribute to individual differences in cardiovascular system development.