Effects of Stress in Male Adolescent C57BL/6J Mice on Adult Psychiatric-Related Behaviors

Merrick Hall Room 301

Stress is known to affect mental health and cognitive performance in humans. Mouse models are used to understand the neurobiological changes underlying the behavioral effects of stress. It is well-established that chronic stress in adult mice can increase anxiety- and depressive-like behavior and impair cognitive performance, similar to what occurs in humans. Surprisingly, little is known about the long-lasting neurobiological and behavioral effects of adolescent stress in mouse models. In this study, we stressed adolescent C57BL/6J mice between postnatal days (PND) 25-27 and then assessed their psychiatric-related behaviors once fully grown (PND 56). We hypothesized that stress during adolescence would result in long-lasting behavioral effects; specifically, increased anxiety- and depressive-like behavior and diminished cognitive performance in adulthood. To test this hypothesis, we used the open field test (OF) and the elevated plus maze (EPM) as measures of anxiety-like behavior, the tail suspension test (TST) as a measure of depressive-like behavior, and the Y-maze (YM) to test spatial working memory, an indicator of cognitive performance. Interestingly, adolescent stress increased anxiety-like behavior in adulthood as measured by reduced center entries in the OF. We also found a trend for adolescent stress to increase anxiety-like behavior in the EPM as measured by reduced percent open arm entries (p=0.07). Taken together, these results so far suggest that stress during adolescence may result in increased anxiety-like behavior in adulthood. In future studies, we will increase our sample sizes and perform similar behavior tests on female mice.