Elsevier

Physiology & Behavior

Volume 46, Issue 6, December 1989, Pages 993-998
Physiology & Behavior

Article
Stress ulcer susceptibility and depression in Wistar Kyoto (WKY) rats

https://doi.org/10.1016/0031-9384(89)90203-5Get rights and content

Abstract

In a series of studies, Wistar Kyoto (WKY) normotensive rats were more susceptible to water-restraint-induced stress ulcer as compared to spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) Fisher-344 (F344) and Wistar rats. In these same studies, WKY rats were also deficient in several behavioral tasks. The four strains were observed in the open-field test of emotionality and WKYs were judged more emotional. In a study on “learned helplessness” WKYs were more deficient in the acquisition of a shuttlebox escape response following unavoidable shock the day before. The prevalence of freezing behavior in the shuttlebox task and the low ambulation scores in the open-field test suggested depressive behavior as a WKY behavior characteristic. WKY rats were judged more depressed in the Porsolt forced-swim test as compared to the other strains. A possible depression-ulcer relationship may exist in WKY rats. This strain may represent a good model for studying possible relationships between depression and stress-induced disease.

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Cited by (148)

  • Danger and safety signals independently influence persistent pathological avoidance in anxiety-vulnerable Wistar Kyoto rats: A role for impaired configural learning in anxiety vulnerability

    2019, Behavioural Brain Research
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    The Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rat is used as a model of anxiety-vulnerability. This rat strain demonstrates a behaviorally-inhibited profile, as they show reduced exploration of novel social [20,21] and non-social situations [22–24], and a behaviorally inhibited temperament is a risk factor for developing anxiety disorders [25,26]. Interestingly, these rats also show rapid acquisition of and increased tendencies to avoid relative to Sprague Dawley (SD) rats [27–29].

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