Abstract
To do translational research on illness, a suitable animal model is needed. Since the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) exist across a wide range of mental functions such as fear memory, negative operant conditioning, cognition, mood, and vigilance, it is difficult to completely reproduce the pathophysiology of PTSD with a single animal model. Here, we will explain the 3WFS model in rats, in which rats are subjected to aversive footshock during the third week of the postnatal period. 3WFS rats show an abnormality that delays the extinction of contextual fear conditioning, which is antagonized by the administration of D-cycloserine, which in turn is thought to promote the extinction of fear memory in humans. This indicates that the 3WFS model reproduces the pathophysiology of PTSD intrusion symptoms (recollection of morbid fear memory). Based on previous data, we speculated that the impaired fear extinction in 3WFS rats is due to abnormalities in the 5-HT neural system of the hippocampus. In this chapter, we will present how to create a 3WFS model and introduce our research on fear memory and the 5-HT neural system of the hippocampus.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP21K07506. The authors are grateful to Dr. Hiroko Togashi (former professor, Health Sciences University of Hokkaido) and Dr. Machiko Matsumoto (former associate professor, Health Sciences University of Hokkaido) who founded and developed juvenile stress research. The authors also express our appreciation to everyone who has participated in juvenile stress research.
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Shikanai, H., Matsuzaki, H., Kasai, R., Kusaka, S., Shindo, T., Izumi, T. (2023). 5-HT Neural System Abnormalities in PTSD Model Rats. In: Pinna, G. (eds) Translational Methods for PTSD Research. Neuromethods, vol 198. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-3218-5_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-3218-5_10
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