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. 2016 Dec 1:167:404-412.
doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2016.09.026. Epub 2016 Sep 29.

Ovariectomy results in inbred strain-specific increases in anxiety-like behavior in mice

Sarah Adams Schoenrock  1 , Daniel Oreper  2 , Nancy Young  3 , Robin Betsch Ervin  3 , Molly A Bogue  4 , William Valdar  5 , Lisa M Tarantino  6
Affiliations

Ovariectomy results in inbred strain-specific increases in anxiety-like behavior in mice

Sarah Adams Schoenrock et al. Physiol Behav. .

Abstract

Women are at an increased risk for developing affective disorders during times of hormonal flux, including menopause when the ovaries cease production of estrogen. However, while all women undergo menopause, not all develop an affective disorder. Increased vulnerability can result from genetic predisposition, environmental factors and gene by environment interactions. In order to investigate interactions between genetic background and estrogen depletion, we performed bilateral ovariectomy, a surgical procedure that results in estrogen depletion and is thought to model the post-menopausal state, in a genetically defined panel of 37 inbred mouse strains. Seventeen days post-ovariectomy, we assessed behavior in two standard rodent assays of anxiety- and depressive-like behavior, the open field and forced swim tests. We detected a significant interaction between ovariectomy and genetic background on anxiety-like behavior in the open field. No strain specific effects of ovariectomy were observed in the forced swim assay. However, we did observe significant strain effects for all behaviors in both the open field and forced swim tests. This study is the largest to date to look at the effects of ovariectomy on behavior and provides evidence that ovariectomy interacts with genetic background to alter anxiety-like behavior in an animal model of menopause.

Keywords: Anxiety; Depression; Estrogen depletion; Inbred mouse strains; Menopause; Ovariectomy.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Contrast plots of strain effects on OVX response for anxiety-like behavior in the open field
Each panel is a matrix of Bayesian contrast probabilities comparing the strain effects on OVX response (ie, OVX – SHAM) across all 37 strains for percent center time and center distance in the open field. Within a panel, the color intensity reflects the evidence for a non-negligible difference between the effect of strain 1 (x-axis) and strain 2 (y-axis). Red shades indicate where the effect is larger in strain 1 than in strain 2, and blue shades indicate the reverse. The contrast probability is smaller when the posterior probability of the strain effect difference is away from zero. Stars denote contrast probabilities < 0.05.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Strain effects on OVX response for anxiety-like behavior in the open field
Plot of posterior means and 95% credible intervals (caterpillar plot) for the strain mean effects on OVX response (ie, OVX – SHAM) within each of the 37 strains tested for percent center time and distance moved in the center of the open field. Thick line segments are the 68% (0.16- 0.84) credible interval and thin lines are the 95% (0.025-0.975) credible interval.
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