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Preliminary evidence of altered sensitivity to benzodiazepines as a function of maternal care in the rat.

Fries E, Moragues N, Caldji C, Hellhammer DH, Meaney MJ

Department of Clinical and Theoretical Psychobiology, University of Trier, Germany.

Variations in maternal care over the first week of life alter the expression of genes encoding for various subunits of the GABA(A)/benzodiazepine (BZ) receptor in the amygdala, a brain region associated with fear behavior. Increased maternal licking/grooming and arched-back nursing are associated with decreased fearfulness and enhanced expression of the subunits that confer BZ sensitivity. In these studies we found that the offspring of high licking/grooming-arched-back nursing mothers also showed increased behavioral sensitivity to acute BZ treatment, suggesting a functional relation between the effect on gene expression and fear behavior.

Published 28 January 2005 in Ann N Y Acad Sci, 1032: 320-3.
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