Sex-Related Differences in Anxiety in Experimental Functional Dyspepsia Induced by Chronic Stress

Abstract

Functional dyspepsia (FD) is associated with gastric sensorimotor dysfunction (including delayed gastric emptying (GE)) and psychosocial comorbidities. Anxiety is among the many psychiatric disorders that are related to FD. The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of chronic sequential stress to create an experimental FD model in male and female rats. The FD model was established by neonatal maternal separation (MS) early in life and repeated homotypic stress (RHS) in adulthood. Newborn pups from postnatal day 1 to day-21 underwent MS for 3 h. In adulthood, the control or maternally separated rats were loaded with RHS for 7 days comprised of 90-min restraint stress. The anxiety-like behaviors were evaluated by the open field (OF) and elevated plus maze (EPM) tests. To validate the experimental FD model, body weight and solid GE were measured in rats after the behavioral experiments. Compared with control males, body weight and GE were significantly (p<0.05) decreased in stressed rats, but not in females. Exposed to chronic stress male rats appeared to exhibit more anxiety-like behavior than control male rats on the OF and EPM. In contrast to the males, no significant differences were found in female groups. Unlike female rats, the male rats appear to be highly suitable to create an experimental FD model under chronic sequential stressed conditions. Therefore, anxious behaviors may not be observed in females due to the absence of dyspeptic symptoms.

Keywords

• Anxiety
• Gender
• Functional Dyspepsia
• Chronic Stress

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