Several animal models have been established to study the development of and treatment for PPD. The most widely used PPD models are the ovarian-steroid-withdrawal model [22], corticosterone-induced model [23], and gestational stress (restraint stress) [24]. Disadvantages of these models include their inability to assess the effects of parturition and the response to multiple stress exposures after parturition which is considered as the leading factor in 85% of cases of depression in patients [38]. Here, we showed female mice subjected to a 10 days CUS after parturition can mimic puerpera suffering from stress. Our established depression model induced depression-like behavioral deficits in postpartum and virgin female mice i.e. anhedonia and behavioral despair as indicated by decreased sucrose preference, increased latency to food, and immobility in FST, which is consistent with previous findings in male mice [33, 39], however, there are no obvious difference between postpartum and virgin female mice, which means the unchanged susceptibility under the 10 days CUS paradigm.
