Social isolation disrupts hippocampal neurogenesis in young non-human primates

Simone M. Cinini, Gabriela F. Barnabe, Nicole Galvão-Coelho, Magda A. de Medeiros, Patrícia Perez-Mendes, Maria B. C. Sousa, Luciene Covolan, Luiz E. Mello

Social relationships are crucial for the development and maintenance of normal behavior in non-human primates. Animals that are raised in isolation develop abnormal patterns of behavior that persist even when they are later reunited with their parents. In rodents, social isolation is a stressful event and is associated with a decrease in hippocampal neurogenesis but considerably less is known about the effects of social isolation in non-human primates during the transition from adolescence to adulthood. To investigate how social isolation affects young marmosets, these were isolated from other members of the colony for 1 or 3 weeks and evaluated for alterations in their behavior and hippocampal cell proliferation. We found that anxiety-related behaviors like scent-marking and locomotor activity increased after social isolation when compared to baseline levels. In agreement, grooming-an indicative of attenuation of tension-was reduced among isolated marmosets. These results were consistent with increased cortisol levels after 1 and 3 weeks of isolation. After social isolation (1 or 3 weeks), reduced proliferation of neural cells in the subgranular zone of dentate granule cell layer was identified and a smaller proportion of BrdU-positive cells underwent neuronal fate (doublecortin labeling). Our data is consistent with the notion that social deprivation during the transition from adolescence to adulthood leads to stress and produces anxiety-like behaviors that in turn might affect neurogenesis and contribute to the deleterious consequences of prolonged stressful conditions.