1. Plasma corticosterone levels as a function of cross-species fostering and species differences
- Author
-
Richard E. Paschke, M. X. Zarrow, Kenneth M. Rosenberg, Victor H. Denenberg, Jonathan L. Hess, and Seymour Levine
- Subjects
medicine.medical_specialty ,Offspring ,Spatial Behavior ,Biology ,Rats ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,Mice ,Endocrinology ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,chemistry ,Animals, Newborn ,Species Specificity ,Corticosterone ,Pregnancy ,Internal medicine ,Lactation ,Adrenal Glands ,medicine ,Animals ,Plasma corticosterone ,Female ,Maternal Behavior - Abstract
Litters of experimental mice were fostered to lactating rat mothers when 4 days old. Control groups consisted of mice reared by mouse mothers and rats reared by rat mothers. At 21 days of age all animals were exposed to a novel stimulus and were killed 15, 30, 45 or 60 min afterward. Mice reared by mouse mothers were found to have significantly higher plasma corticosterone levels than rats reared by rat mothers. However, mice reared by rat mothers showed a significantly depressed corticosterone level when compared to the other 2 groups. In addition, mice reared by rat mothers were less active in an open-field test than were mice reared by mouse mothers. These results provide evidence of a marked maternal mediation of subsequent adi-enocortical activity in the offspring. (Endocrinology 83: 900, 1968)
- Published
- 1968