Laboratory of Physiology, Department of Biological Sciences, São Paulo State University (Unesp), School of Sciences, Assis, SP, Brazil.
Laboratory of Physiology, Department of Biological Sciences, São Paulo State University (Unesp), School of Sciences, Assis, SP, Brazil.
Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2018 Jul 13;85:89-97. doi: 10.1016/j.pnpbp.2018.03.005. Epub 2018 Mar 26.
Often the manifestation of anxiety cannot be explained by known environmental or hereditary factors. With this perspective, it has been reported that prenatal stress may lead to emotional disturbances in the offspring. However, studies relating prenatal stress to anxiety are controversial and generally the stressors used do not mimicks the reality experienced by mothers. Thus, this investigation evaluated the effects of an unpredictable chronic stress scheme applied in one of the three gestational weeks of rats on the manifestation of generalized anxiety and panic disorder in the progeny (males), analyzing, respectively, the avoidances and escapes in the elevated T-maze, at the 1st, 3rd or 6th month of progeny life. Control offspring showed increased generalized anxiety disorder and reduced panic at 6 months. The effects of prenatal stress depended on the gestational week where it occurred and on the progeny age: during the 1st gestational week the generalized anxiety decreased in 6 month old rats. Animals in the 3rd month, prenatally stressed during the last gestational week, showed anxiogenesis and panicogenesis, but effects reverted at the 6th month, when they presented anxiolysis and no changes related to panic. Together the results show that not only the gestational period in which the aversive experience occurred was important, but the age of the evaluated progeny, since the type and the intensity of behaviors related to anxiety may vary with the developmental stage. For the model of stress used in the present study, the effects of prenatal stress were more prominent when the exposure occurred during the 3rd gestational week in rats.
通常，焦虑的表现不能用已知的环境或遗传因素来解释。从这个角度来看，有研究报道称产前应激可能导致后代的情绪障碍。然而，将产前应激与焦虑相关联的研究存在争议，而且通常使用的应激源并不能模拟母亲所经历的现实。因此，这项研究评估了在大鼠的三个妊娠期之一应用不可预测的慢性应激方案对后代（雄性）广泛性焦虑和惊恐障碍表现的影响，分别分析了在后代生命的第 1、3 或 6 个月时在高架 T 迷宫中的回避和逃脱。对照后代在第 6 个月时表现出广泛性焦虑障碍增加和惊恐减少。产前应激的影响取决于发生的妊娠期以及后代的年龄：在第 1 个妊娠期，6 个月大的大鼠的广泛性焦虑症减轻。在最后一个妊娠期的第 3 个月受到产前应激的动物表现出焦虑症和惊恐症，但在第 6 个月时，这些影响会逆转，此时它们表现出焦虑症缓解且没有与惊恐症相关的变化。总之，结果表明，不仅发生厌恶体验的妊娠期很重要，而且评估后代的年龄也很重要，因为与焦虑相关的行为的类型和强度可能随发育阶段而变化。对于本研究中使用的应激模型，当应激暴露发生在大鼠的第 3 个妊娠期时，产前应激的影响更为明显。
