Abstract
Maternal immune activation (MIA) is a newly developed animal model of schizophrenia. It has recently been reported that when MIA is induced with the cytokine inducer polyinosinic-polycytidilic acid (poly I:C) rats do not show deficits in prepulse inhibition (PPI), a test that is often considered a validity benchmark. The aim of the current experiment was to determine whether doses of poly I:C that have previously been shown to induce the behavioural features of schizophrenia can disrupt PPI in rats. Pregnant rat dams were given a single injection of poly I:C (4.0 mg/kg) or a saline injection equivalent on gestational day 15. Acoustic startle reactivity, habituation of the startle response and PPI were assessed in juvenile (34-35 day) and adult (>56 day) offspring. Prenatal immune activation did not alter startle reactivity on startle-only or prepulse-only trials. Furthermore, there was no effect of MIA on habituation of the startle response. MIA does however disrupt PPI, as PPI was reduced significantly in adult MIA offspring, and a trend was observed in the juvenile animals. Our finding that prenatal poly I:C can disrupt PPI in MIA rats further validates this procedure as an animal model.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 156-159 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | Behavioural Brain Research |
| Volume | 190 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jun 26 2008 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This research was supported by a grant from the Health Research Council (HRC) of New Zealand. We also thank K. Cheyne, D. Dickerson and S. Illingworth for their involvement in this research.
Keywords
- Animal model
- Immune
- Poly I:C
- Prepulse inhibition
- Rats
- Schizophrenia
- Validity