THE “OPEN FIELD” TEST REVEALS AGE-ASSOCIATED ALTERATIONS IN EXPLORATORY ACTIVITY OF RATS EXPOSED TO PRENATAL HYPOXIA
The effects of negative influence of stress factors during prenatal ontogenesis can manifest themselves already in infancy, persist in adults and worsen with age, leading to premature aging and early mortality. Hypoxia is one of the most common forms of perinatal stress. The aim of this work is to identify the age-related behavior characteristics of 3-month-old adult and 18-month-old aged male rats in the “open field” test in normal pregnancy and after exposure to severe hypobaric hypoxia on days 14–16 of prenatal ontogenesis (prenatal hypoxia, PH). It have been shown that in adult rats PH leads to alterations in orientation and exploratory behavior, and a decrease in motor activity on the first day of testing, as well as a lack of learning with repeated testing. In aged PH rats, an even greater suppression of orientational and exploratory behavior is observed. With repeated testing, the PH animals did not show a decrease in exploratory activity, which indicates memory impairments. Thus, prenatal hypoxia causes alteration in as well orientation and exploratory behavior as spatial memory that are progressive with age.