Neuromolecular and behavioral studies for management of developmental animals.

母-幼相互作用的中断通过表观遗传修饰改变了幼崽的生理和行为。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-肾上腺活性，以应对新奇的压力。神经化学方面，早期断奶的雄性小鼠，而不是雌性小鼠，在杏仁核表现出早熟的髓鞘形成，海马区和前额叶皮质的脑源性神经营养因子蛋白水平降低，齿状回的溴脱氧尿苷免疫反应性降低。早期断奶的小鼠在超过48小时后表现出更高的皮质酮反应，这种皮质酮的增加导致了许多方面的早期断奶现象。因此，发育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.