Although the expression of Pvb was not impacted by isolation rearing conditions ( Fig 8B ), the correlation analysis between the molecular and the behavioral data showed an inverse relationship close to significance (r = -0.276, p = 0.052, Fig 8D ).
Similarly, a significant main effect of the rearing condition on the expression of Bdnf long 3’-UTR mRNA levels was found (F(3, 52) = 6.750, p = 0.00067, see Fig 5B ), with a significant decrease in the expression of Bdnf long 3’-UTR within the prefrontal cortex of animals isolated only during adolescence or adulthood (post-hoc: p<0.05 for ELSI and p<0.001 for AdSI), whereas this reduction was barely not statistically significant in lifelong isolated animals (post-hoc: p = 0.0559).
Post-hoc analysis revealed increased activity of SI rats, reflected in a statistical trend (p = 0.074, Bonferroni corrected).
While no correlation between the distance moved and the expression of total Bdnf was found (r = -0.238, p>0.05, Fig 6A ), the statistical analysis showed a significant correlation between hyperlocomotion and Bdnf long 3’-UTR down-regulation (r = -0.346, p<0.05, Fig 6B ) as well as between hyperlocomotion and Bdnf VI transcripts down-regulation (r = -0.364, p<0.01, Fig 6D ), with a considerable trend toward significance also for the correlation with Bdnf IV transcripts expression (r = -0.245, p = 0.074, Fig 6C ).
Contrastingly, this reduction did not reach statistical significance in animals isolated only during adolescence (p = 0.075).