2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Are rats with neonatal repeated treatment of an NMDA antagonist, an animal model for schizophrenia, vulnerable to stress?

Research Project

Project/Area Number	23530959
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Section	一般
Research Field	Experimental psychology
Research Institution	Osaka City University
Principal Investigator	KAWABE Kouichi 大阪市立大学, 文学研究科, 准教授 (30336797)
Project Period (FY)	2011 – 2013
Keywords	統合失調症 / 動物モデル / ストレス脆弱性 / 認知・行動障害 / NMDA受容体 / グルタミン酸受容体 / ラット
Research Abstract	The two-hit hypothesis is known as a hypothesis of onset mechanism of schizophrenia. It assumes that the onset of schizophrenia is originally attributed to vulnerability of a brain which stems from genetic or early developmental factors, and that exposure to later acquired factors such as stress triggers the onset. The present study examined whether rats with neonatal repeated treatment of an NMDA antagonist (MK-801), one of the animal models for schizophrenia, have stress-vulnerability. Rats with repeated neonatal MK-801 treatment were subjected to 20-day (5 days/week x 4 weeks) forced-swim stress in adulthood. After that, behavioral tests were carried out. The results do not show that these animals have stress-vulnerability.