Early life handling decreases serotonin turnover in the nucleus accumbens and affects feeding behavior of adult rats.

In our previous studies, we reported that neonatally handled rats have an increased ingestion of sweet food but are resistant to the damaging effects of a chronic exposure to a highly palatable diet. Accumbal serotonin (5-HT) is important for feeding behavior and plays a role in the vulnerability to diet-induced obesity. Therefore, our hypotheses were (1) 5-HT turnover in the nucleus accumbens is altered in neonatally handled animals and plays a role in their differential feeding behavior and (2) if this is so, a chronic pharmacological treatment affecting 5-HT reuptake (chronic imipramine) would be able to revert the behavioral findings. Litters were divided into nonhandled and handled (10 min/day, Days 1-10 after birth). In Experiment 1, we demonstrated that a decreased 5-HT metabolism in the nucleus accumbens was observed in adult handled animals. In Experiment 2, the two previous groups were subdivided and assigned to receive imipramine diluted in water or water alone. After 30 days of treatment, we evaluated their weight gain and feeding behavior. Handled rats weighed less than nonhandled rats, and all imipramine-treated rats showed a reduction in weight gain after 60 days of treatment. Imipramine reverted the increased sweet food consumption seen in neonatally handled rats. We conclude that serotonin is involved in the altered feeding behavior of neonatally handled rats, and this protocol is an important tool for studying the mechanisms by which early life events have a long-term impact on feeding preferences.

Evidence for a lack of phasic inhibitory properties of habituated stressors on HPA axis responses in rats.

This experiment tested the hypothesis that habituation to repeated stressor exposures is produced by phasic inhibitory influence on the neural circuitry that normally drives the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus and subsequently the adrenocortical hormone response to psychological stress. Such a process would be expected to lower the acute response to a novel stressor when experienced concurrently with a habituated stressor. Rats were exposed to restraint or no stress conditions for 14 consecutive days. On the 15th day, the rats were exposed to the control condition (no stress), acute restraint, loud noise, or restraint and loud noise concurrently. Blood was taken and assayed for ACTH and corticosterone and brains were collected to examine c-fos messenger RNA expression in several brain areas. As predicted, the rats that received the same (homotypic) stressor repeatedly and again on the test day displayed low levels of ACTH and corticosterone, similar to the control conditions (i.e., showed habituation). All rats that received a single novel stressor on the test day, regardless of prior stress history, exhibited high levels of ACTH and corticosterone. The rats that received two novel stressors also displayed high levels of ACTH and corticosterone, but little evidence of additivity was observed. Importantly, when a novel stressor was concurrently given with a habituated stressor on the test day, no reduction of HPA axis response was observed when compared to previously habituated rats given only the novel stressor on the test day. In general, c-fos mRNA induction in several stress responsive brain areas followed the same patterns as the ACTH and corticosterone data. These data suggest that habituation of the adrenocortical hormone response to psychological stressors is not mediated by phasic inhibition of the effector system.

Early life experience alters behavioral responses to sweet food and accumbal dopamine metabolism.

Neonatal handling in rats persistently alters behavioral parameters and responses to stress. Such animals eat more sweet food in adult life, without alterations in lab chow ingestion. Here, we show that neonatally handled rats display greater incentive salience to a sweet reward in a runway test; however they are less prone to conditioned place preference and show less positive hedonic reactions to sweet food. When injected with methylphenidate (a dopamine mimetic agent), non-handled rats increase their sweet food ingestion in the fasted state, while neonatally handled rats do not respond. We did not observe any differences regarding baseline general ambulatory activity between the groups. A lower dopamine metabolism in the nucleus accumbens was observed in handled animals, without differences in norepinephrine content. We suggest that early handling leads to a particular response to positive reinforcers such as palatable food, in a very peculiar fashion of higher ingestion but lower hedonic impact, as well as higher incentive salience, but diminished dopaminergic metabolism in the nucleus accumbens.

Neonatal handling, sweet food ingestion and ectonucleotidase activities in nucleus accumbens at different ages.

Neonatal handled rats ingest more sweet food than non-handled ones, but it was documented only after puberty. Here, we studied the purinergic system in the nucleus accumbens, a possible target for the alteration in the preference for palatable food. We measured the ATP, ADP and AMP hydrolysis mediated by ectonucleotidases in synaptosomes of the nucleus accumbens in periadolescent and adult rats from different neonatal environments: non-handled and handled (10 min/day, first 10 days of life). Before adolescence, we found a decreased ingestion of sweet food in the neonatally handled group, with no effect on ATP, ADP or AMP hydrolysis. In adults, we found a greater ingestion of sweet food in the neonatally handled group, with no effect on ATPase or ADPase activities, but a decreased AMP hydrolysis. The nucleus accumbens is a site of intensive interaction between the adenosinergic and dopaminergic systems. Therefore, adenosine may modulate accumbens' dopamine neurotransmission differently in neonatally handled rats.