TY - JOUR AU - Das, Saroj Kumar AU - Barhwal, Kalpana AU - Hota, Sunil Kumar AU - Thakur, Mahendra Kumar AU - Srivastava, Ravi Bihari PY - 2015 DA - 2015/02/14 TI - Disrupting monotony during social isolation stress prevents early development of anxiety and depression like traits in male rats JO - BMC Neuroscience SP - 2 VL - 16 IS - 1 AB - Although there have been several reports on social isolation induced mood alterations, the independent contribution of monotonous environment in mediating mood alterations has been less studied. In view of the above, the present study is aimed at investigating the relative contribution of monotony towards mood alterations during isolation stress. Monotony was induced in a specially designed isolation chamber in male Sprague-Dawley rats in the presence or absence of isolation by housing animals singly (SH) or in pairs (PH). Novel objects were introduced to disrupt monotony in singly housed animals (SHNO) or paired housed animals (PHNO). Behavioural alterations were assessed using Open field test (OFT), Elevated Plus Maze (EPM) and Forced Swim Test (FST). Neuro-morphological changes in the CA3 region of hippocampus were studied by cresyl violet and golgi-cox staining. Hippocampal serotonin and 5-hydroxy indole acetic acid (5-HIAA) levels were estimated along with the expression of phospho-insulin like growth factor-1 receptor (pIGF-1R) and phospho cyclic AMP response-element binding protein (pCREB). Serotonin was depleted by administering Para-chlorophenylalanine (PCPA) to a separate PH group (PHPCPA), PHNO group (PHNOPCPA) and SHNO group (SHNOPCPA) to determine the role of serotonin in mediating monotony induced emotional mal-adaptations. SN - 1471-2202 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12868-015-0141-y DO - 10.1186/s12868-015-0141-y ID - Das2015 ER -