Journal of Depression and Anxiety
Open Access

Abstract

Gender-Dependent Differences in Motor Activity, Anxiety and Depression- Like Behavior are Preserved in Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats with Epilepsy

Natasha M Ivanova, Zlatina P Nenchoska, Daniela M Pechlivanova and Jana D Tchekalarova

Objectives: Preclinical and clinical studies have shown gender differences regarding motor activity, depressive and anxiety behavior. Gender distinctions could be interfered by chronic stress, pain, depression, epilepsy. Depression and anxiety are main types of affective disorders identified in epileptic patients. Over the last years, animal models have been widely used to study the neurobiological and genetic base of those affective disorders. The aim of the present study was to explore the role of gender and kainate treatment on emotional behaviors depression and anxiety in spontaneously hypertensive rats.

Methods: Status epilepticus was induced in freely moving rats by repetitive intraperitoneal injections of kainate in low subconvulsive doses. The development of chronic epileptic stage was confirmed by the presence of spontaneous motor seizures detected by 24 h video-monitoring. Control and experimental groups were tested in the sucrose preference test, open field test, and elevated plus maze two months after kainate treatment.

Results: Although female rats were more vulnerable to status epilepticus than male hypertensive rats, they showed decreased spontaneous seizures during the chronic epileptic phase. Epilepsy produced a depression-like behavior in both genders, which showed anhedonia-like behavior during the light and the dark phases, though higher affinity to sucrose was preserved in females. Both epileptic male and female spontaneously hypertensive rats were hyperactive than naïve rats but gender difference was still present in the open field test. Gender difference was detected between the controls and kainate-treated groups in the elevated plus maze test, as male rats were less anxious than females indicated by the increased time spent in the open arms.

Conclusion: Male spontaneously hypertensive rats exhibited higher seizure susceptibility than female rats in the kainate model of temporal lobe epilepsy, while gender-dependent behavioral differences in naive rats were preserved during the chronic epileptic phase.