Hava Golan, Vered Lev, Yael Mazar, Mordechai Hallak, Mahoud Huleihel
Department of Developmental Molecular Genetics and Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Beer-Sheva, Israel.
Dev Psychobiol. 2006 Mar;48(2):162-8. doi: 10.1002/dev.20116.
Maternal intrauterine inflammation during pregnancy poses a major threat of neurodevelopmental brain damage in offspring and may cause poor cognitive and perceptual outcomes. In mice, we have previously shown that maternal inflammation induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) at gestation day 17th increased the levels of the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-6 in the fetal brain. In this study, we used the same system and examined the effect of short, systemic maternal inflammation on anxiety and social behavior of the offspring. Adult offspring from the maternal inflammation group showed increased anxiety, as indicated by the elevated plus maze. Social interaction among offspring from the test groups was examined when two unfamiliar mice from different litters were introduced into a new home-cage. Offspring from the maternal inflammation group showed reduced activity, indicating increased fear. In addition, offspring from the maternal inflammation group were less aggressive towards their cagemates and they spent a significantly longer time trimming the whiskers of their cagemates during the first 30 min of their interaction, compared to offspring from the control group. Our data suggest that short systemic maternal inflammation have long-lasting consequences on the adult mouse stress and social behavior.
孕期母体子宫内炎症对后代神经发育性脑损伤构成重大威胁，并可能导致认知和感知结果不佳。在小鼠中，我们之前已经表明，在妊娠第17天由脂多糖（LPS）诱导的母体炎症会增加胎儿大脑中促炎细胞因子白细胞介素-6的水平。在本研究中，我们使用相同的系统，研究了短暂的全身性母体炎症对后代焦虑和社交行为的影响。如高架十字迷宫所示，母体炎症组的成年后代表现出焦虑增加。当将来自不同窝的两只陌生小鼠引入一个新的饲养笼时，对测试组后代之间的社交互动进行了检查。母体炎症组的后代活动减少，表明恐惧增加。此外，与对照组的后代相比，母体炎症组的后代对同笼伙伴的攻击性较弱，并且在互动的前30分钟内，它们花费显著更长的时间梳理同笼伙伴的胡须。我们的数据表明，短暂的全身性母体炎症对成年小鼠的应激和社交行为具有长期影响。
