Nicotina e/ou estresse por contenção durante a adolescência de camundongos: efeitos em comportamentos de ansiedade, sociabilidade e comportamentos associados à depressão

Abstract

Extensive evidence points out to psychological stress as having a key role in initiation, maintenance and relapse after withdrawal, of cigarette smoking. Adolescents tend to be more sensitive to the central nervous system s effects of both psychological stress and nicotine, the main psychoactive compound in cigarettes. However, there are few basic neurobiology studies evaluating the possible interactions between nicotine and psychological stress at this age. Therefore, our objective was to study the effects of nicotine and stress exposure during adolescence on anxiety-like, social and depressive-like behaviors in mice. For this study, we have used male and female Swiss mice. Starting on the 30th post-natal day (PN), mice were exposed to nicotine (ending on PN40) and/or stress (ending in PN38 for mice evaluated on PN39/40, and on PN40 for mice evaluated at other ages). Thus, four experimental groups were formed: 1) Simultaneous exposure to nicotine (drinking water, 50µg/ml) and restraint stress (1h/day); 2) Nicotine-only exposure; 3) Stress-only exposure; 4) Control group. For behavioral assessment, we utilized: elevated plus-maze test (EPM), three-chambered social approach (TS) and forced swimming test (FST). We evaluated each animal on all tests at one among three time points: At the end of the exposure (PN39/40), after a short period of withdrawal (PN44/45) and at adulthood (PN69/70). Stress exposure reduced body mass gain during adolescence while nicotine had no effect on body mass during the same period. Also, stress did not affect nicotine consumption. Our model was not capable of altering anxiety parameters evaluated in EPM. However, stress+nicotine exposure caused hyperactivity at the end of exposure in both sexes. Concerning TS and FST, we have only observed significant behavioral differences after the end of the exposure. In a short period of withdrawal, nicotine-only exposed females showed an increase in depressive-like behavior, an effect that disappeared by simultaneous stress exposure. Conversely, in the same age, only combined exposure promoted an increase of depressive-like behavior in males. Our data also suggests a long-term increase of sociability in stress+nicotine exposed mice. This work provides experimental evidence for an interaction between nicotine and stress exposure in adolescence resulting in immediate, short-term and long-term alterations in emotional responses.