BACKGROUND: Accumulating epidemiological evidence shows that life event stressors are major vulnerability factors for psychiatric diseases such as major depression. It is also well known that the resident intruder paradigm (RIP) results in aggressive behavior in male rats. However, it is not known how resident intruder paradigm-induced aggression affects depressive-like behavior in isolated male rats subjected to chronic mild stress (CMS), which is an animal model of depression.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: Male Wistar rats were divided into 3 groups: non-stressed controls, isolated rats subjected to the CMS protocol, and resident intruder paradigm-exposed rats subjected to the CMS protocol.

RESULTS: In the sucrose intake test, ingestion of a 1% sucrose solution by rats in the CMS group was significantly lower than in control and CMS+RIP rats after 3 weeks of stress. In the open-field test, CMS rats had significantly lower open-field scores compared to control rats. Furthermore, the total scores given the CMS group were significantly lower than in the CMS+RIP rats. In the forced swimming test (FST), the immobility times of CMS rats were significantly longer than those of the control or CMS+RIP rats. However, no differences were observed between controls and CMS+RIP rats.

CONCLUSIONS: Our data show that aggressive behavior evoked by the resident intruder paradigm could relieve broad-spectrum depressive-like behaviors in isolated adult male rats subjected to CMS.

Keywords: Aggression - psychology, Behavior, Animal, Choice Behavior, Depression - psychology, Stress, Psychological - psychology, Swimming, Weight Gain