Adolescent and adult male rats habituate to repeated isolation, but only adolescents sensitize to partner unfamiliarity

We investigated whether adolescent male rats show less habituation of corticosterone release than adult male rats to acute vs repeated (16) daily one hour episodes of isolation stress, as well as the role of partner familiarity during recovery on social behavior, plasma corticosterone, and Zif268 expression in brain regions. Adolescents spent more time in social contact than did adults during the initial days of the repeated stress procedures, but both adolescents and adults that returned to an unfamiliar peer after isolation had higher social activity than rats returned to a familiar peer (p = 0.002) or undisturbed control rats (p < 0.001). Both ages showed evidence of habituation, with reduced corticosterone response to repeated than acute isolation (p = 0.01). Adolescents, however, showed sensitized corticosterone release to repeated compared with an acute pairing with an unfamiliar peer during recovery (p = 0.03), a difference not found in adults. Consistent with habituation of corticosterone release, the repeated isolation groups had lower Zif268 immunoreactive cell counts in the paraventricular nucleus (p < 0.001) and in the arcuate nucleus (p = 0.002) than did the acute groups, and adolescents had higher Zif268 immunoreactive cell counts in the paraventricular nucleus than did adults during the recovery period (p < 0.001), irrespective of stress history and partner familiarity. Partner familiarity had only modest effects on Zif268 immunoreactivity, and experimental effects on plasma testosterone concentrations were only in adults. The results highlight social and endocrine factors that may underlie the greater vulnerability of the adolescent period of development.