Özcanlı Çay Ö, Çalışkan H. Anxiety-like behaviors increased in juvenile rats in the streptozotocin-induced diabetes model during the early stage. World J Psychiatry 2026; 16(7): 118260 [DOI: 10.5498/wjp.118260]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Hasan Çalışkan, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Balıkesir University, Çağış Campus, AltıEylül, Balikesir 10145, Türkiye. hasan.caliskan@balikesir.edu.tr
Research Domain of This Article
Neurosciences
Article-Type of This Article
research-article
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Baishideng Publishing Group Inc, 7041 Koll Center Parkway, Suite 160, Pleasanton, CA 94566, USA
Share the Article
Özcanlı Çay Ö, Çalışkan H. Anxiety-like behaviors increased in juvenile rats in the streptozotocin-induced diabetes model during the early stage. World J Psychiatry 2026; 16(7): 118260 [DOI: 10.5498/wjp.118260]
World J Psychiatry. Jul 19, 2026; 16(7): 118260 Published online Jul 19, 2026. doi: 10.5498/wjp.118260
Anxiety-like behaviors increased in juvenile rats in the streptozotocin-induced diabetes model during the early stage
Özlem Özcanlı Çay, Hasan Çalışkan
Özlem Özcanlı Çay, Faculty of Medicine Department of Pediatrics, Balıkesir University, Balikesir 100145, Türkiye
Hasan Çalışkan, Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Balıkesir University, Balikesir 10145, Türkiye
Author contributions: Çalışkan H conducted the animal experiments; Özcanlı Çay Ö and Çalışkan H designed the study, analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript; and all authors thoroughly reviewed and endorsed the final manuscript.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: All procedures involving animals were reviewed and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Balıkesir University, approval No. 2025-5/27.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guidelines.
Data sharing statement: The data supporting this study’s findings are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Corresponding author: Hasan Çalışkan, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Balıkesir University, Çağış Campus, AltıEylül, Balikesir 10145, Türkiye. hasan.caliskan@balikesir.edu.tr
Received: December 28, 2025 Revised: February 12, 2026 Accepted: March 30, 2026 Published online: July 19, 2026 Processing time: 180 Days and 12.7 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Diabetes is an endocrinopathy characterized by the inability to produce insulin or insufficient insulin production because of the destruction of beta cells in the pancreas caused by autoimmune or other epidemiological factors. Diabetes can lead to physical and psychological complications.
AIM
To investigate early behavioral changes in an experimental diabetes model in juvenile rats.
METHODS
In this study, a total of 14 juvenile male Wistar rats (7 rats per group) were used. To induce the diabetes model, 120 mg/kg streptozotocin (STZ) was administered, while the control group received 1 mL/kg physiological saline. The open field test and the hole-board test were performed for five minutes each. Unpaired comparisons were evaluated using Student’s t test or the Mann-Whitney U test. Correlations were analyzed using the Pearson test.
RESULTS
Severe hyperglycemia was observed in rats in the diabetes mellitus model induced by STZ, and all diabetic rats displayed glucose levels above 400 mg/dL. In the open-field test, the time spent in the central area, the number of rearings, and the total distance traveled were significantly lower in diabetic rats than in naive rats (P < 0.05). In the hole-board test, the duration and frequency of total head dipping were considerably lower in diabetic rats than in healthy rats (P < 0.01). The grooming time (P < 0.01) and freezing time (P < 0.0001) increased dramatically in the diabetes mellitus group. A remarkable correlation was found between behavioral changes and hyperglycemia.
CONCLUSION
Our data indicate that early-stage diabetes induced by STZ increases anxiety-like behaviors and impairs exploratory behaviors. These behavioral changes may also occur in children with undiagnosed or untreated hyperglycemia and can provide important clues in clinical practice.
Core Tip: In this study, the relationship between hyperglycemia and anxiety-like behaviors in a streptozotocin-induced diabetes model was investigated in juvenile rats. An increase in anxiety-like behaviors and a decrease in exploratory behaviors were observed in juvenile rats during the early stages of diabetes. Both behavioral changes were correlated with hyperglycemia.
