Exploratory Behavior of Adolescent and Adult Rats Subjected to

Stress and Environmental Enrichment after the Withdrawal

Period to Ethanol
Santos, Sílvio Cezar; Pierotti, Felipe Faria; Meirelles, Mônica Costa; Nakahata, Heidy de Sousa Dutra; Perez,
Luciane Rodrigues N.; Mariotti, Thaís; Balbino-Junior, Mauri; Araújo, Renata; Calvente, Patrícia Renata
Valester; Rocha, Jaqueline Borges dos Santos
Health Sciences Directory. Universidade Nove de Julho, São Paulo. São Paulo, SP, Brasil.
silvio_csc@hotmail.com
INTRODUCTION
RESULTS
The consumption of alcohol can lead to dependence on Figure 1.
the individual through complex biochemical mechanisms Exploratory
behavior
that may or may not be associated with subjective after
factors of each person. Parallel dependence on ethanol is treatment
with ethanol
the alcohol withdrawal syndrome, characterized for the (D1) and
lack of this substance. stress after
the
withdrawal
to ethanol
OBJECTIVE (D2).

This study aimed to elucidate the influence of

unpredictable chronic stress (UCS) and
environmental enrichment (EE) in the period of Figure 2.
abstinence from alcohol in adult and adolescent rats. Exploratory
behavior after
treatment with
ethanol (D1) and
environmental
METHOD enrichment after
the withdrawal to
These animals (N = 12 each group) received 2,5 g/kg ethanol (D2).
ethanol via intraperitoneal injection (ip) for 14 days.
After the animals were subjected to abstinence for
four days, leisure and stress were performed. The
UCS was: deprivation of food and water, forced
Figure 3. Rearing
swimming and sleeping with the lights on. EE was after stress and
the exposure of animals for 2 hours at classic toys environmental
enrichment (D2) in
such as: plastic tunnels, bridges, ladders and wheel adolescent and
adult rats .
for rats. Behavioral analysis occurred after treatment
with ethanol (D1) and after the period of abstinence
(D2) in the open field for 5 minutes to get the
number of rearings and locomotion total. Statistical DISCUSSION/ CONCLUSION
analysis was performed with unpaired t test. The results show that adolescent subjected to stress
had a higher exploratory behavior compared with
adult rats. EE has kept the same behavior, comparing
adolescents and adults. However, in adults showed an
increased exploratory behavior, compared with the
group subjected to stress. The results suggest
behavioral differences on the UCS and EE in
adolescent and adult rats in the ethanol abstinence
period.