a Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Urmia University of Medical Sciences , Urmia , Iran.
b Cellular and Molecular Research Center, Urmia University of Medical Sciences , Urmia , Iran.
Stress. 2019 Sep;22(5):619-631. doi: 10.1080/10253890.2019.1619075. Epub 2019 May 26.
Prenatal stressful events have long-lasting consequences on behavioral responses of offspring. While the effects of gestational and maternal stress have been extensively studied on psychological alterations in the progeny, little is known about effects of each parent's pre-conception life events on emotional responses in offspring. Here, the effect of maternal and/or paternal pre-conception stress was investigated on anxiogenic responses of offspring. Male and female adult rats were subjected to predatory stress (contactless exposure to a cat for 1 + 1 h per day) for 50 (male, : 12) and 15 (female, : 24) consecutive days; controls were not exposed. After the stress procedure, the control and stressed rats were mated to create four types of breeding pairs: control female/control male, stressed female/control male, control female/stressed male, and stressed female/stressed male. On postnatal days 30-31, the offspring were tested on the elevated plus maze and plasma corticosterone concentration was measured. Half of the pups were exposed to acute predatory stress before the elevated plus maze test. In most subgroups, corticosterone and anxiety-like behaviors in the offspring with both or only one parent exposed to pre-gestational stress increased compared to their control counterparts. However, under acute stress conditions, a different sex-dependent pattern of anxiety responses emerged. The combined effects of maternal and paternal stress were not additive. Hence, individual offspring behaviors can be influenced by the former life stress experiences of either parent. Incorporation of genetic and epigenetic aspects in development of neurobehavioral abnormalities and reprograming of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis may contribute to this phenomenon. Early life stress (including during pregnancy) is known to have long-lasting effects on offspring, including emotional behaviors. Whether individual anxiety behaviors can be influenced by stress experiences of each parent even before a pregnancy is less well-understood. Our findings from this study on rats exposed to predator stress before mating suggest that maternal or paternal adult life events prior to pregnancy can lead to maladaptive behavior in their offspring later in life.
产前应激事件对后代的行为反应有持久的影响。虽然妊娠期和母体应激对后代的心理改变已经得到广泛研究，但对于父母双方在受孕前的生活事件对后代情绪反应的影响却知之甚少。在这里，研究了母体和/或父体受孕前应激对后代焦虑反应的影响。雄性和雌性成年大鼠连续 50 天（雄性，：12）和 15 天（雌性，：24）每天接触（无接触暴露于猫 1+1 小时）接受捕食者应激；对照组不暴露。应激程序后，对照和应激大鼠交配，创建四种类型的繁殖对：对照雌性/对照雄性、应激雌性/对照雄性、对照雌性/应激雄性和应激雌性/应激雄性。在产后第 30-31 天，对后代进行高架十字迷宫测试，并测量血浆皮质酮浓度。一半的幼崽在高架十字迷宫测试前暴露于急性捕食者应激下。在大多数亚组中，与对照相比，暴露于受孕前应激的父母双方或仅一方的后代的皮质酮和焦虑样行为增加。然而，在急性应激条件下，出现了不同的性别依赖的焦虑反应模式。母体和父体应激的联合效应不是累加的。因此，个体后代的行为可以受到父母任何一方的前生命应激经历的影响。遗传和表观遗传方面在神经行为异常的发展和下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺轴的重编程中的作用可能促成了这一现象。已知早期生活应激（包括怀孕期间）对后代有持久影响，包括情绪行为。个体焦虑行为是否可以受到受孕前父母双方的应激经历影响，了解甚少。我们在交配前暴露于捕食者应激的大鼠上进行的这项研究的结果表明，母亲或父亲在受孕前的成年生活事件可能导致他们的后代在以后的生活中出现适应不良的行为。
