Repeated maternal dexamethasone treatments in late gestation increases 11beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 expression in the hippocampus of the newborn rat.

This study was designed to investigate the effect of repeated maternal injections of dexamethasone in late gestation on the expression of newborn hippocampal 11beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 (11beta-HSD1), the enzyme amplifying glucocorticoids' action by converting biologically inactive 11-ketone metabolites into active glucocorticoids. Daily dexamethasone treatments (0.10 mg/kg body weight) in the last week of gestation were carried out in the pregnant rat. The expression of 11beta-HSD1 in the newborn hippocampal tissue was analyzed with Western blot and real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The effect of corticosterone on the expression of 11beta-HSD1 was studied in cultured hippocampal neurons derived from newborn offspring received prenatal dexamethasone treatments. Both body and brain weights of the offspring were reduced significantly by repeated dexamethasone treatments in the last week of gestation. Western blot and real-time PCR analysis showed that both 11beta-HSD1 protein and mRNA expressions were increased significantly in the hippocampus of the newborn offspring on the first and seventh days after birth. Corticosterone could induce 11beta-HSD1 expression in cultured hippocampal neurons prepared from newborns received prenatal dexamethasone treatments, which was blocked by glucocorticoid receptor antagonist RU38486. The above findings suggest that repeated prenatal dexamethasone treatments at the end of gestation increase 11beta-HSD1 expression in the hippocampal tissue of the offspring, which may trigger a positive feedback pathway for the generation of biologically active glucocorticoids in the hippocampal tissue of the newborns.