Figure 1.

Behavioral characterization of an animal model of surgical menopause in adult rats. Adult Wistar female rats were ovariectomized (OVX) or sham-operated (SHAM). Twelve weeks after surgery, the animals were subjected to behavioral tests as described in “Materials and Methods” section. (A) Y-maze spontaneous alternation test: for each animal, the number of total arm entries and the number of triads in 6 min was recorded. (B) Elevated plus maze test: each animal was allowed to freely explore for 5 min and the number of times the animal entered an arm with all four paws was recorded. (C) Forced swimming test: every 5 s, a time-sampling technique was used to score the presence of immobility, swimming or climbing behavior. (D) SHAM or OVX rats were placed individually in the center of a field marked with a grid of 16 equal squares for 10 min. The number of times the animal crossed each line was registered. Each column represents the mean ± SEM of (A) the percentage of alternation, (B) the percentage of open arm entries, (C) the number of counts or (D) the number of crossings per session (n = 4–12 animals/group); *p < 0.05, ***p < 0.001, Student’s t-test.