Michelsen Kimmo A, van den Hove Daniël L A, Schmitz Christoph, Segers Olivier, Prickaerts Jos, Steinbusch Harry W M
Department of Neuroscience, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands.
BMC Neurosci. 2007 Dec 19;8:107. doi: 10.1186/1471-2202-8-107.
Both prenatal stress (PS) and postnatal chronic mild stress (CMS) are associated with behavioral and mood disturbances in humans and rodents. The aim of this study was to reveal putative PS- and/or CMS-related changes in basal spine morphology and density of pyramidal neurons in the rat medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC).
We show that rats exposed to PS and/or CMS display changes in the morphology and number of basal spines on pyramidal neurons in the mPFC. CMS had a negative effect on spine densities, particularly on spines of the mushroom type, which are considered to form stronger and more stable synapses than other spine types. PS alone did not affect spine densities, but had a negative effect on the ratio of mushroom spines. In addition, PS seemed to make rats less responsive to some of the negative effects of CMS, which supports the notion that PS represents a predictive adaptive response.
The observed changes may represent a morphological basis of PS- and CMS-related disturbances, and future studies in the field should not only consider total spine densities, but also separate between different spine types.
产前应激（PS）和产后慢性轻度应激（CMS）均与人类和啮齿动物的行为及情绪障碍有关。本研究的目的是揭示大鼠内侧前额叶皮质（mPFC）中基底树突棘形态和锥体神经元密度的假定的PS和/或CMS相关变化。
我们发现，暴露于PS和/或CMS的大鼠在mPFC锥体神经元上的基底树突棘形态和数量发生了变化。CMS对树突棘密度有负面影响，特别是对蘑菇型树突棘，与其他类型的树突棘相比，蘑菇型树突棘被认为能形成更强、更稳定的突触。单独的PS不影响树突棘密度，但对蘑菇型树突棘的比例有负面影响。此外，PS似乎使大鼠对CMS的一些负面影响反应性降低，这支持了PS代表一种预测性适应反应的观点。
观察到的变化可能代表了PS和CMS相关障碍的形态学基础，该领域未来的研究不仅应考虑总的树突棘密度，还应区分不同类型的树突棘。
