Centre of Experimental medicine, Institute of Experimental Pharmacology and Toxicology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovak Republic.
Centre of Biosciences, Institute of Molecular Physiology and Genetics, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovak Republic.
Behav Brain Res. 2019 Dec 16;375:112131. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2019.112131. Epub 2019 Aug 1.
Chronic stress during pregnancy or even prior to gestation can negatively affect offspring´s neurobehavioural development. Several studies have shown, that offspring who had experienced excessive stress during gestation had higher rates of cognitive and mood disorders later during adolescence or in adulthood. Hippocampal neurons play a crucial role in the regulation of behavior, mainly in anxiety-related behaviors and spatial learning and memory. Recently, it has been shown, that excessive stress even prior to gestation could interfere with sensitive developmental processes in the brain and may affect hippocampal functioning with severe neurobehavioural consequences in later life. The aim of this work was to investigate the effects of pre-gestational stress of the rat dams on the hippocampal excitability of the pups right after the birth. Neurobehavioural consequences of pre-gestational stress were analyzed during adolescence (35-40 postnatal days) and in early adulthood (75-80 postnatal days). We have shown that even pre-gestational chronic maternal stress increased resting membrane potential, suppressed depolarization-activated action potential firing, and increased spontaneous activity of hippocampal cells from newborn offspring. Altered function of hippocampus was reflected at the behavioural level. Adolescent male offspring of dams exposed stress prior to conception showed hyperactivity-like behaviour in a new stressful environment and increased anxiety-like behaviour during adulthood compared to adult males from non-stress group. Together, this work suggests, that chronic stress even prior to gestation can interfere with functional brain development of the offspring and can cause long-term behavioural changes at the level of neurobehavioural adaptations.
怀孕期间甚至妊娠前的慢性应激会对后代的神经行为发育产生负面影响。许多研究表明，在妊娠期间经历过度应激的后代在青少年期或成年后更易出现认知和情绪障碍。海马神经元在调节行为方面起着至关重要的作用，主要涉及焦虑相关行为和空间学习记忆。最近的研究表明，妊娠前的过度应激甚至可能干扰大脑的敏感发育过程，并可能对海马功能产生严重的神经行为后果，从而影响后期生活。本研究的目的是探讨母体在妊娠前的应激对新生幼鼠海马兴奋性的影响。在青春期（出生后 35-40 天）和成年早期（出生后 75-80 天）分析了妊娠前应激的神经行为后果。我们发现，即使是妊娠前的慢性母体应激也会增加静息膜电位，抑制去极化激活动作电位的发放，并增加新生后代海马细胞的自发性活动。海马功能的改变在行为水平上得到了反映。与非应激组的成年雄性相比，在新的应激环境中，应激前受孕的雌性后代的雄性青春期幼鼠表现出多动样行为，成年期的焦虑样行为增加。总之，这项工作表明，即使是妊娠前的慢性应激也会干扰后代的功能性大脑发育，并可能导致神经行为适应水平的长期行为变化。
