AJP - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, Vol 266, Issue 3 960-R965, Copyright © 1994 by American Physiological Society
Linkage of stress-induced hypocalcemia, gastric lesions, and emotional behavior in Wistar-Kyoto rats
J. Ma, S. Aou, T. Hori and J. Ding
Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.
The effects of water-restraint stress on blood calcium levels and gastric
pathology and their behavioral relevance were examined in Wistar-Kyoto
(WKY) and Wistar rats. The stress induced more severe hypocalcemia (0.32 mM
decrease) and gastric lesions (34.6 mm in mean length) in WKY rats than in
Wistar rats (0.19 mM and 17.7 mm, respectively). The magnitude of
hypocalcemia correlated positively with that of gastric lesions in both
strains (WKY, r = 0.59; Wistar, r = 0.69). In the forced-swimming test, WKY
rats exhibited a longer immobility time (6.53 min) and a shorter struggling
time (0.54 min) than Wistar rats (3.33 and 1.90 min, respectively). The
severity of hypocalcemia and gastric lesions correlated positively (r =
0.59 and 0.69, respectively) with the length of immobility time in the WKY
rats, while it correlated negatively (r = -0.70 and -0.61, respectively)
with the length of struggling time in the Wistar rats. These results
suggest that stress-induced hypocalcemia and gastric lesions are closely
related and are also influenced by behavioral responsiveness in a
strain-dependent manner.
