Environmental enrichment exerts anxiolytic effects in the Indian field mouse (Mus booduga)
Publication Type: |
Journal Article |
Year of Publication: |
2012 |
Authors: |
D. Ragu Varman, G. Marimuthu, K. Emmanuvel Rajan |
Publication/Journal: |
Applied Animal Behaviour Science |
Keywords: |
anxiety, crh, environmental enrichment, gr, src-1, stress hormones, ubc9 |
ISBN: |
01681591 |
Abstract:
Environmental enrichment (EE) is known to have behavioral and physiological anxiolytic
effects in several animal models. However, it is as yet unclear how EE modulates behavior
of wild animals and the underlying molecular mechanisms. The adult male field mouse
Mus booduga (n = 42) captured at agricultural field, were housed in non-enriched standard
condition (SC) for 7 days and considered as directly from wild (DW). Another two groups
of mice were housed in either EE or SC for 30 days. Behavioral testing was carried out to
assess their anxiety-like behavior in the elevated plus-maze (EPM). We found that on EPM,
mice housed in EE display less anxiety like behavior when compared to mice housed in SC.
Exposure to plus-maze did not increase the levels of corticosterone (CORT) in prefrontal
cortex (PFC) and circulating CORT, and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) in the mice
housed in EE but not in the mice housed in SC. We observed a trend in the EE induced
inhibition of expression of corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH), glucocorticoid receptor
(GR), E2 ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme (Ubc9) and steroid receptor coactivator-1 (SRC-1)
mRNA levels, which are all known to be involved in the stress response signaling pathway.
Our study suggests that EE exerts therapeutic and anxiolytic effects against stressors.