Early protein malnutrition attenuates the antidepressant-like effect of DMI in the forced- swim test in adults rats maternally separated

GUTIERREZ M.C.; NASI MEDEOT L.; PERONDI M.C.; CUADRA GR; VALDOMERO A.

Mar del Plata

Congreso; XLVIII Reunión Anual de laSociedad Argentina d e Farmacología Experimental; 2016

SAFE - Sociedad Argentina d e Farmacología Experimental

Early protein malnutrition attenuates the antidepressant-like effect of DMI in the forced- swim test in adults rats maternally separatedPrevious results demonstrate that perinatal protein malnutrition facilitates depressive-like behaviors in rats that have experienced maternal separation. Thus, undernutrition significantly increases the immobility time in the forced- swim test (FST). Considering the long-lasting alterations produced in the central monoaminergic systems, as a consequence of nutritional insult, we study the treatment effects of desipramine (DMI) - a highly selective reuptake inhibitor of norepinephrine- on the behavioral changes found in the FST. To this aim, different groups of adult control (C) and protein deprived rats (D) maternally separated daily for 180 min from PND 1 until PND 10 (MS-group) were treated with DMI (15 mg/kg/day, IP) or saline during 7 days. Total immobility time was measured for 5 min period in the FST and compared with rats that were not submitted to maternal separation (NMS). Although DMI treatment produced an antidepressant-like effect in both C (NMS and MS) and D (NMS and MS) groups, rats in D-MS group showed a significant higher immobility time in the forced-swim test. These preliminary results indicate that early nutritional insult alter the pharmacological reactivity to DMI, highlighting an incapacity to induce neuroadaptative changes in central pathways involved in DMI mechanism of action. Indeed, they suggest the possibility of an altered reactivity to therapeutic treatments in adult subjects malnourished at early life.