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Maternal behavior of SHR rats and its relationship to offspring blood pressures
Author(s) -
Myers Michael M.,
Brunelli Susan A.,
Squire Jonathan M.,
Shindeldecker Richard D.,
Hofer Myron A.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
developmental psychobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.055
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1098-2302
pISSN - 0012-1630
DOI - 10.1002/dev.420220104
Subject(s) - licking , offspring , blood pressure , analysis of variance , medicine , psychology , developmental psychology , endocrinology , physiology , pregnancy , biology , genetics
In Part I of this study maternal behavior of 15 spontaneously hypertensive (SHR) and 11 Wistar‐Kyoto (WKY) rat mothers was recorded throughout the preweaning period. SHR mothers were observed: 1) in arched‐ and blanket‐nursing postures more often, and in passive‐nursing posture less often, 2) licking their pups more often, and 3) resting less often. Further, SHR mothers retrieved their pups more quickly than did WKY. In the second part of this study we found that a composite maternal behavior score, derived from summing occurrences of motheripup contact, arched‐nursing, and puplicking, was positively correlated with the offspring blood pressures. This relationship, which accounted for 43.5% of the variance in adult blood pressure, suggests that certain types of interactions between mothers and their pups may contribute to individual differences in cardiovascular system development.