Effect of social isolation on 24-h pattern of stress hormones and leptin in rats

This work analyzes the effect of social isolation of growing male rats on 24-h changes of plasma prolactin, growth hormone, ACTH and leptin, and on plasma and adrenal corticosterone concentrations. At 35 days of life, rats were either individually caged or kept in groups (6-8 animals per cage) under a 12:12 h light/dark schedule (lights on at 08:00 h). A significant arrest of body weight gain regardless of unchanged daily food intake was found in isolated rats after 2 weeks of isolation. On the 4th week, rats were killed at 6 time intervals during a 24-h cycle, beginning at 09:00 h. In isolated rats the 24-h pattern of all parameters tested became distorted, as assessed by Cosinor analysis. When analyzed as a main factor in a factorial analysis of variance, isolation decreased plasma prolactin and growth hormone, increased plasma leptin and corticosterone while decreased adrenal corticosterone. Plasma corticosterone levels correlated significantly with plasma ACTH and with adrenal corticosterone levels in group-caged rats only. These changes can be attributed to an effect of mild stress on the endogenous clock that modulates the circadian hormone release.