Social instability stress in adolescent male rats alters hippocampal neurogenesis and produces deficits in spatial location memory in adulthood

The ongoing development of the hippocampus in adolescence may be vulnerable to stressors. The effects of social instability stress (SS) in adolescence (daily 1 h isolation and change of cage partner postnatal days 30-45) on cell proliferation in the dentate gyrus (DG) in adolescence (on days 33 and 46, experiment 1) and in adulthood (experiment 2) was examined in Long Evans male rats and compared to nonstressed controls (CTL). Additionally, in experiment 2, a separate group of SS and CTL rats was tested on either a spatial (hippocampal-dependent) or nonspatial (nonhippocampal dependent) version of an object memory test and also were used to investigate hippocampal expression of markers of synaptic plasticity. No memory impairment was evident until the SS rats were adults, and the impairment was only on the spatial test. SS rats initially (postnatal day 33) had increased cell proliferation based on counts of Ki67 immunoreactive (ir) cells and greater survival of immature neurons based on counts of doublecortin ir cells on day 46 and in adulthood, irrespective of behavioral testing. Counts of microglia in the DG did not differ by stress group, but behavioral testing was associated with reduced microglia counts compared to nontested rats. As adults, SS and CTL rats did not differ in hippocampal expression of synaptophysin, but compared to CTL rats, SS rats had higher expression of basal calcium/calmodulin-dependent kinase II (CamKII), and lower expression of the phosphorylated CamKII subunit threonine 286, signaling molecules related to synaptic plasticity. The results are contrasted with those from previous reports of chronic stress in adult rats, and we conclude that adolescent stress alters the ongoing development of the hippocampus leading to impaired spatial memory in adulthood, highlighting the heightened vulnerability to stressors in adolescence.