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. 2024 Sep 30;14:396. doi: 10.1038/s41398-024-03124-2

Fig. 3. Depressed mice contribute to depressive behaviors in naive mice after cohabitation.

Fig. 3

Two groups of naive mice were cohoused with two groups of demonstrators for five weeks, respectively. Behavioral and corticosterone tests were conducted after the scheduled time (A). After 5-week CUMS, the sucrose preference percentage of DP was lower than that of CON (B), and the immobility time in the tail suspension test of DP was also higher (C). Following a 5-week cohabitation, depressive behaviors persisted and stress levels increased in the DP mice (D–F). Naive mice cohabiting with DP mice showed similar behavioral and physiological changes (G–I). (Group BC represented naive mice cohabiting with CON mice, while group BD represented naive mice cohabiting with DP mice. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, n(DP&CON) = 20, n(BC&BD) = 10) (Created in BioRender. BioRender.com/k05d903).