Social Behavioral Deficits in Krushinsky-Molodkina Rats, an Animal Model of Audiogenic Epilepsy

In clinical practice, epilepsy is often comorbid with the autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). This warrants a search of animal models to uncover putative overlapping neuronal mechanisms. The Krushinsky-Molodkina (KM) rat strain is one of the oldest inbred animal models for human convulsive epilepsies....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of personalized medicine 2022-12, Vol.12 (12), p.2062
Main Authors: Rebik, Anastasiya A, Riga, Vyacheslav D, Smirnov, Kirill S, Sysoeva, Olga V, Midzyanovskaya, Inna S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal models
Animals
Auditory stimuli
Autism
Behavior
Boxes
Communication
Convulsions & seizures
Epilepsy
Experiments
Freezing
Inbreeding
Locomotion
Precision medicine
Seizures
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Summary:In clinical practice, epilepsy is often comorbid with the autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). This warrants a search of animal models to uncover putative overlapping neuronal mechanisms. The Krushinsky-Molodkina (KM) rat strain is one of the oldest inbred animal models for human convulsive epilepsies. We analyzed the behavioral response of adult seizure-naive KM males in three-chambered tests for social preference. We found that a presence of social stimuli (encaged unfamiliar Wistar rats of the same age and sex) evoked a reduced or reversed exploratory response in freely moving KM individuals. The epilepsy-prone rats demonstrated remarkably shortened bouts of social contacts and displayed less locomotion around the stranger rat-containing boxes, together with a pronounced freezing response. The decrease in social preference was not due to a general decrease in activity, since relative measures of activity, the index of sociability, were decreased, too. The susceptibility to audiogenic seizures was verified in the KM cohort but not seen in the control Wistar group. We propose the KM rat strain as a new animal model for comorbid ASD and epilepsy.
ISSN:2075-4426
2075-4426
DOI:10.3390/jpm12122062