Operational pattern of ovariectomy and subsequent olfactory bulbectomy orderly performed on female rats may be an agitated depression animal model of menopausal women

MO Fei-rong; GUO Ling

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1674-3806.2013.12.01

Abstract：Objective To prove the possibility that ovariectomized ( OVX) and subsequently olfactory bul-bectomized(OBX) female rat pattern(OVX+OBX) first established by Stock et al in year 2000 is able to become a feasible animal model of agitated depression in menopausal women .Methods Fifty Sprague-Dawley adult female rats were randomly divided into five groups with ten rats per group:model,model control,model treatment,sham and intact. OVX and OBX were orderly performed on the first three group rats .Combined administration of fluoxetine (10 mg/kg, i.p.) and estradiol (100 μg/kg, s.c.) was given to rats in model treatment group after fourteen days of OBX ,while saline solution was administered to rats in model control group ,and the above daily interventions were conducted for a period of twenty-one consecutive days;while the remaining group rats were not treated at all .Open field test ,forced swimming test and Morris water maze were utilized to detect behavioral changes of rats in all groups .Results Rats in model or model control group showed early-onset and severe irritation ,agitation ,active attacks and fights or biting with each other .Meanwhile , the crossing score , rearing score , immobility time and escape latency in the above two group rats were the highest or the longest ,while the time rat swimming in the quadrant originally put a platform and the number of rat swimming through a fixed position for putting the platform became the shortest or the smallest .All these changes had a statistically significant difference in comparison with those in sham or intact group rats ( P<0.01 ) . However ,changes of the above parameters in model treatment rats became just opposite to those in model or model control group rats with a statistically significant difference ( P<0.01 ) , and were also near the levels of related param-eters in sham group or intact group rats with no statistically significant differences ( P >0.05 ) .Conclusion Our study can fully replicates the results , including OVX+OBX female rat model designed by Stock et al , and the behav-ioral changes ,surgical causes and antidepressant treatment efficacies showed from OVX +OBX rat model in this stud-y, which are very similar to the correspondent results clinically found in an agitated depression of menopausal women , and also share relative surface validity , construct validity and predictive validity , thereby indicating that the female rat OVX+OBX operational pattern has a strong potential to become a feasible agitated depression animal model of menopausal female patients .