Plastic changes induced by neonatal handling in the hypothalamus of female rats.

Early-life events can exert profound long-lasting effects on several behaviors such as fear/anxiety, sexual activity, stress responses and reproductive functions. Present study aimed to examine the effects of neonatal handling on the volume and number of cells in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (pPVN, parvocellular and mPVN, magnocellular regions) and the supraoptic nucleus (SON) in female rats at 11 and 90 days of age. Moreover, in the same areas, immunohistochemistry for oxytocin (OT) and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) were analyzed in the adult animals.