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Effects of ketamine on prepubertal Wistar rats: Implications on behavioral parameters for Childhood‐Onset Schizophrenia
Author(s) -
Damazio Pacheco Felipe,
Canever Lara,
Antunes Mastella Gustavo,
Gomes Wessler Patricia,
Kunz Godoi Amanda,
Hubbe Isabela,
Costa Afonso Arlindo,
Celso Danielle,
Quevedo João,
Ioppi Zugno Alexandra
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
international journal of developmental neuroscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.761
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1873-474X
pISSN - 0736-5748
DOI - 10.1016/j.ijdevneu.2019.10.006
Subject(s) - ketamine , stereotypy , open field , schizophrenia (object oriented programming) , saline , prepulse inhibition , intraperitoneal injection , startle response , phencyclidine , behavioural despair test , psychology , medicine , endocrinology , anesthesia , nmda receptor , psychiatry , hippocampus , amphetamine , receptor , antidepressant , dopamine
Early childhood schizophrenia (COS) is a rare condition and has no established animal model to test new treatments. Previous studies have shown that repeated doses of 25 mg/kg ketamine produce schizophrenia‐like changes in adult male Wistar rats, but adequate doses of ketamine in animal COS studies are not yet known. Male and female Wistar rats, 23 days old, received an injection of ketamine or intraperitoneal saline (i.p.) for 8 days. The animals underwent different behavioral tests: open field, social interaction, pre‐pulse startle inhibition (PPI). Female rats showed behavioral changes at all ketamine doses (5, 15, 25 and 50 mg/kg), in contrast to males that only at 50 mg/kg dose had interrupted PPI and higher stereotypy in the open field test. The present study demonstrated that ketamine at a dose of 50 mg/kg once daily from 23 to 31 days postnatal reproduced changes similar to schizophrenia in pre‐pubertal male and female Wistar rats and could be used, with other interventions, in future studies with animals in COS.