Department of Pharmacology, Institute of Drug Research, Hebrew University Medical Centre, Ein Kerem, Jerusalem, Israel.
Stress. 2011 Nov;14(6):604-13. doi: 10.3109/10253890.2011.588294. Epub 2011 Jul 26.
Recent prospective studies have shown that gestational stress in humans is more likely to cause cognitive and emotional problems in the offspring if it occurs during weeks 12-20 of pregnancy. There are also suggestions that such problems may be gender dependent. This review describes recent studies that found sex differences in the behaviour and brain morphology of rats stressed prenatally during the equivalent period of neuronal development in humans. Learning deficits are more prevalent in males and anxious behaviour in females but their appearance depends also on the timing and intensity of the stress and the age when the offspring were tested. Cognitive deficits and anxiety are linked to a sex-dependent reduction in neurogenesis and in measures of dendritic morphology in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampal formation. Maternal adrenalectomy prior to the stress prevents the anxiety in both sexes and learning deficits in males. Corticosterone administration to the dam to mimic levels induced by stress reinstates only the anxiety, indicating that it arises from foetal exposure to corticosterone from the maternal circulation. Learning deficits in males may result from a combination of a reduction in testosterone and in aromatase activity, together with the action of other adrenal hormones.
最近的前瞻性研究表明，如果妊娠 12-20 周期间发生妊娠应激，人类妊娠应激更有可能导致后代认知和情绪问题。也有研究表明，这些问题可能与性别有关。这篇综述描述了最近的研究发现，在人类神经元发育的等效时期，产前受到应激的大鼠在行为和大脑形态上存在性别差异。学习缺陷在雄性中更为普遍，而焦虑行为在雌性中更为普遍，但它们的出现也取决于应激的时间和强度，以及后代接受测试的年龄。认知缺陷和焦虑与新生神经元数量和前额叶皮层和海马结构中树突形态的性别依赖性减少有关。应激前对母体进行肾上腺切除术可预防雌雄两性的焦虑和雄性的学习缺陷。向母体给予皮质酮以模拟应激引起的水平，仅恢复焦虑，表明焦虑是由胎儿从母体循环中暴露于皮质酮引起的。雄性的学习缺陷可能是由于睾酮和芳香化酶活性的减少，以及其他肾上腺激素的作用共同导致的。
