Rat pups must learn maternal odor to support attachment behaviors, including nursing and orientation toward the mother. Neonates have a sensitive period for rapid, robust odor learning characterized by increased ability to learn odor preferences and decreased ability to learn odor aversions. Specifically, odor-0.5 mA shock association paradoxically causes an odor preference and coincident failu...

Animal models can help elucidate the mechanisms through which early-life stress (ELS) has pathophysiological effects on the developing brain. One model that has been developed for rodents consists of limiting the amount of bedding and nesting material during the first postnatal weeks of pup life. This ELS environment has been shown to induce "abusive" behaviors by rat dams towards pups, while m...

Objective . Investigate whether the disruption of normal hippocampal rhythms via optogenetic stimulation medial septum (MS) during late postnatal development has enduring effects on allocentric memory rat pups. Methods Hippocampal theta oscillations were non-endogenously regulated in pups using blue light (465-nm) pan-neuronal activation MS from day (P)21–25 random sinewave frequencies ranging ...

In this study, the authors examined in newborn rat lung tissues the release of leukotriene B(4) (LTB(4)) from tissue explants in vitro, the protein expression of the LT-synthesizing enzyme, 5-lipoxygenase (5-LO), and its activating protein (FLAP), and the effects of in vivo hyperoxic exposure (>95% O(2)) on these parameters. Basal LTB(4) output increased from 0.98 ng/mgDNA/30 min at day 1 to 3....

Airway hyperreactivity is one of the hallmarks of hyperoxic lung injury in early life. As neurotrophins such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and nerve growth factor (NGF) are potent mediators of neuronal plasticity, we hypothesized that neurotrophin levels in the pulmonary system may be disturbed by hyperoxic exposure. We therefore evaluated the effects of hyperoxia on the expressio...