Maternal immune activation in mid-late gestation alters amphetamine sensitivity and object recognition, but not other schizophrenia-related behaviours in adult rats

Behavioural Brain Research
A GrayLauren Harms

Abstract

Maternal immune activation induced by Poly(I:C) administration is one of the most commonly used animal models of schizophrenia at present. Previous work from our team has demonstrated that some, but not all of the features often reported for maternal immune activation exposure in rodents can be observed in rats exposed to maternal immune activation at mid or late gestation. To determine whether previous findings in our laboratory were due to these time points simply being less sensitive neurodevelopmental periods for rats with regard to maternal immune activation effects, we aimed to investigate whether maternal immune activation at an often-reported sensitive period (mid-late gestation, day 14) resulted in more behavioural features reflective of face validity for schizophrenia. We examined the behavioural outcomes of mid-late maternal immune activation on a battery of behavioural tests aimed at assessing validity for positive, negative and cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia. We found that rats exposed to maternal immune activation, compared to controls, exhibited enhanced sensitivity to the locomotor-stimulating effects of amphetamine and reduced exploration of novel objects. These findings present a unique profile of effects...Continue Reading

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