Neuromolecular and behavioral studies for management of developmental animals.

破坏幼仔之间的相互作用会通过表观遗传修饰改变幼仔的生理和行为。我们已经证明，早期断奶会导致成年小鼠焦虑样和攻击行为的持续增加。早期断奶的小鼠也表现出更高的下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺活动对新奇应激的反应。在神经化学方面，早期断奶的雄性小鼠，而不是雌性小鼠，表现出杏仁核的髓鞘早熟，海马和前额叶皮层的脑源性神经营养因子蛋白水平下降，齿状回的溴脱氧尿苷免疫反应性降低。早期断奶小鼠在48小时以上表现出较高的皮质酮反应，这种皮质酮的增加引起了早期断奶现象的许多方面。因此，发育时期较高的糖皮质激素分泌对大脑发育有很大影响。

Disruption of the mother-pup interaction changes the physiology and behavior of pups via epigenetic modifications.We have demonstrated that early weaning results in a persistent increase in anxiety-like and aggressive behavior in adult mice. Early-weaned mice also showed higher hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal activity in response to novelty stress. Neurochemically, early-weaned male mice, but not female mice, showed precocious myelination in the amygdala, decreased brain-derived neurotrophic factor protein levels in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, and reduced bromodeoxyuridine immunoreactivity in the dentate gyrus. The early weaned mice showed higher corticosterone response more than 48 hours, and this increment of corticosterone caused many aspects of early-weaning phenomena. Thus higher glucocorticoid secretion in the developmental period has a great impact on brain development.