Predictable Chronic Mild Stress in Adolescence Increases Resilience in Adulthood

Stress in adolescence has been widely demonstrated to have a lasting impact in humans and animal models. Developmental risk and protective factors play an important role in the responses to stress in adulthood. Mild-to-moderate stress in adolescence may resist the negative impacts of adverse events in adulthood. However, little research on resilience has been conducted. In this study, we used a predictable chronic mild stress (PCMS) procedure (5 min of daily restraint stress for 28 days) in adolescent rats (postnatal days (PNDs) 28-55) to test the resilience effect of PCMS on depressive-like behavior in the sucrose preference test and forced swim test and anxiety-like behavior in the novelty-suppressed feeding test and elevated plus maze in adulthood. We also investigated the role of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling in the brain during the PCMS procedure in adolescence. Moreover, we investigated the effect of PCMS in adolescence on subsequent responses to chronic unpredictable stress (CUS; PNDs 63-83) in adulthood. The results demonstrated that PCMS during adolescence produced antidepressant-and anxiolytic-like effects and increased mTOR signaling activity in the prefrontal cortex in early adulthood. Either systemic administration or intra-PFC infusion of the mTOR inhibitor rapamycin completely blocked the behavioral effects produced by PCMS in adolescence. PCMS during adolescence resisted depressive-and anxiety-like behavior caused by CUS in adulthood. These findings indicate that PCMS in adolescence can contribute to resilience against depression and anxiety caused by stress in adulthood.