Differential effects of neonatal handling on anxiety, corticosterone response to stress, and hippocampal glucocorticoid and serotonin (5-HT)2A receptors in Lewis rats

Neonatal handling (during the first 3 weeks of age) has been reported by others to diminish the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) responsivity to stress in adult Long Evans rats, an effect involving a serotonin (5-HT)(2A) receptor-mediated increase in glucocorticoid receptor (GR) gene expression in the frontal cortex and the hippocampus. In addition, handled animals may also display enduring reductions in anxiety-related behaviours, including in the elevated plus-maze. We have thus analysed the aforementioned neuroendocrine and behavioural consequences of neonatal stress in male and female adult Lewis rats, a strain characterised by its high anxiety and its hyporesponsive HPA axis. Plasma corticosterone, but not behavioural, responses to an elevated plus-maze test were decreased in handled rats. Besides, hippocampal mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) and GR binding capacities were not different between handled and non-handled Lewis rats, an observation which could be extended to our adult Long Evans rats. Lastly, neither hippocampal nor cortical 5-HT2A receptor binding capacities in adult Lewis rats were affected by prior handling. In keeping with the failure to detect early handling-induced increases in hippocampal CR binding in 3-week old Lewis and Long Evans rats, the present study reinforces past findings indicating that environmental and genetic factors are crucial variables in the neonatal handling paradigm. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.