Effects of Housing Conditions on Stress Responses, Feeding, and Drinking in Male and Female Rats
Abstract
Housing animals under particular environmental conditions alters animals' behavior, physiological and biochemical status, and immune system functioning . If housing conditions prior to experimental treatments affects male and female animals differently, then these differences must be identified and accounted for to avoid reaching false conclusions regarding sex differences in response to other variables such as drugs, infections, and diets. Effects of differential housing conditions were examined in male and female rats to identify possible sex differences. Rats were assigned to same sex grouped, crowded, or individually housed conditions in two experiments. Experiment 1 examined the effects of individual versus crowded housing conditions on corticosterone, a biochemical index of stress, in male and female rats. Experiment 2 extended the findings of Experiment 1 by separately manipulating spatial and population aspects of housing with male and female rats. Male rats had a greater stress response, as indexed by an increase in corticosterone, under crowded conditions. In contrast, female rats had a greaterstress response when individually housed. Grouped conditions were relatively ineffective in producing a stress response in male rats, but had an effect onfemales similar to the crowded conditions. Spatial crowding was the key variable for males, whereas the number of other animals was more important for females.Taken together, these findings indicate that male and female rats are differentially affected by their environments and that housing conditions alone can affect biochemical stress responses. In addition, housing conditions affected food and water consumption independent of stress responding and differently for males and females. Specifically, crowded males consumed more bland food than did grouped males. Individually housed males consumed more sweet food than did grouped males.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 07, 1995
- Accession Number
- AD1011441
Entities
People
- Kelly J. Brown
Organizations
- Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences