A single session of emotional stress produces anxiety in Wistar rats

The sensorial stimulation arising from a physically stressed (PS) subject may produce emotional stress in a witnessing partner (WP). Both members of the pair develop functional changes. We tested changes in locomotor activity (crossing) and in the defensive burying test in WP, and PS adult male Wistar rats having been submitted to a single 10 min session in a two-compartment cage. During this session, the WP rats received auditory and olfactory stimulation coming from a PS pair submitted to unavoidable electric footshocks (1 mA, dc, 0.5 s, 0.5 c/s, 10 min). This experiment was replicated in other groups pre-treated with vehicle or diazepam, and their urine was collected and analyzed by the static Head-Space and Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry (HS-GC/MS) techniques. The WP group displayed a significantly higher crossing [F(2,45) = 4.31, P < 0.01] and more cumulative burying time [F(2,22) = 4.73, P < 0.01] than the control or PS groups. Diazepam (1 mg/kg) reverted these changes. Our results indicate that the conspecific sensorial communication coming from the PS group produces anxiety probably mediated by 2-heptanone, since the HS-GC/MS analyses showed the highest amount of 2-heptanone in the urine from the PS group [F(2,42) = 5.17, P < 0.009].