Okojie Akhabue Keneth, Rauf Khalid, Iyare Eghosa
Reproductive and Developmental Programming Research Group, Department of Physiology, Enugu Campus, University of Nigeria, Enugu, Nigeria.
Department of Pharmacy, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Abbottabad, Pakistan.
Basic Clin Neurosci. 2019 Mar-Apr;10(2):99-107. doi: 10.32598/bcn.9.10.95. Epub 2019 Mar 1.
The World Health Organization estimates that about 25 million pregnant mothers are currently at risk for malaria, and that malaria accounts for over 10,000 maternal and 200,000 neonatal deaths per year. The current hypothesis of early life programming supports the premise that many developmental delay and disorders may have their origin In-utero. Therefore, the current study aimed at evaluating the possible impact of experimental malaria exposure In-utero on neurobehavioral profile in mice offspring.
Pregnant mice were intraperitoneally infected on gestational day 13 with 1.02×10 infected red blood cells. Pregnant mice (both infected and uninfected) were allowed to deliver and the offspring were monitored up to postnatal day 42 when anxiety-like, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and locomotor activity were evaluated using elevated plus maze, marble burying, and Open Field Test, respectively.
The current study showed that maternal infection with Plasmodium berghei resulted in an interesting behavior in offspring characterized by increased anxiety-like and OCD behaviors. Locomotor activity was however not affected.
It may be concluded that In-utero exposure to experimental malaria in mice causes behavioral changes.
世界卫生组织估计，目前约有2500万孕妇面临疟疾风险，且疟疾每年导致超过10000例孕产妇死亡和200000例新生儿死亡。当前的早期生命编程假说支持这样一个前提，即许多发育迟缓及障碍可能起源于子宫内。因此，本研究旨在评估子宫内实验性疟疾暴露对小鼠后代神经行为特征的可能影响。
在妊娠第13天，给怀孕小鼠腹腔注射1.02×10个感染的红细胞。让怀孕小鼠（包括感染和未感染的）分娩，并对后代进行监测，直至出生后第42天，分别使用高架十字迷宫、埋珠实验和旷场实验评估其焦虑样行为、强迫症行为和运动活动。
本研究表明，感染伯氏疟原虫的母鼠会导致后代出现有趣的行为，其特征为焦虑样行为和强迫症行为增加。然而，运动活动未受影响。
可以得出结论，子宫内暴露于实验性疟疾会导致小鼠行为改变。
