Fig. 4
Effects of maternal VAC and MIA on social interaction and depression-related behaviors at 4 and 8 w postnatally. a, e In social approach, a two-way ANOVA of sniffing time showed a significant interaction of MIA × VAC (F1,33 = 8.814, p = 0.006) at 4 w and a main effect of VAC (F1,36 = 10.079, p = 0.003) at 8 w. b, f For sniffing time in social novelty, there were main effects of MIA (F1,33 = 14.394, p = 0.001) and VAC (F1,33 = 5.982, p = 0.02) at 4 w and significant effect of MIA (F1,36 = 5.344, p = 0.027) and VAC (F1,36 = 14.416, p = 0.001) at 8 w. Post hoc comparisons revealed that VAC pretreatment could reverse the MIA-induced decreases in time spent sniffing the social stimulus (a, e) and the novel stimulus (b, f) by MIA offspring at 4 and 8 w. MIA did not affect the immobility time of the mice in the TST at 4 w (c) and 8 w (g). d, h In the FST, a two-way ANOVA of immobility time revealed a significant effect of MIA (F1,32 = 11.540, p = 0.002) and a significant interaction of MIA × VAC (F1,32 = 4.775, p = 0.036) at 4 w, as well as a main effect of MIA (F1,36 = 8.205, p = 0.007) at 8 w. Comparison confirmed that in the FST, MIA mice spent more time immobile than the controls; VAC rescued these effects at 4 w (d) but not at 8 w (h). n = 8–13 mice/group; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 (two-way ANOVA and Bonferroni post hoc test). The results are all shown as the mean + s.e.m.