Prenatal stress-related alterations in synaptic transmission and 5-HT receptor-mediated effects in the rat dorsal raphe nucleus are ameliorated by the 5-HT receptor antagonist SB 269970.

Early life adversity exerts a detrimental influence on developing brain neuronal networks and its consequences may include mental health disorders. In rats, prenatal stress may lead to anxiety and depressive-like behavior in the offspring. Several lines of evidence implicated an involvement of prenatal stress in alterations of the brain serotonergic system functions, but the effects of prenatal stress on its core, the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN), still remain incompletely understood. The present study was aimed at finding whether prenatal stress induces modifications in the glutamatergic and GABAergic inputs to DRN projection cells and whether it affects DRN 5-HT receptors, which modulate activity of these synapses. Prenatal stress resulted in an increase in basal frequency of spontaneous excitatory postsynaptic currents (sEPSCs) and in a decrease in basal frequency of spontaneous inhibitory postsynaptic currents (sIPSCs) recorded from putative projection neurons in DRN slices ex vivo. While there were no changes in the excitability of DRN projection neurons, the 5-HT receptor-mediated reduction in the sEPSC frequency and rise in the sIPSC frequency, seen in control rats, were largely absent in slices obtained from prenatally stressed rats. Repeated administration of SB 269970, a 5-HT receptor antagonist, resulted in a reversal of prenatal stress-induced alterations in 5-HT receptor-mediated effects on the sEPSC/sIPSC frequency. Moreover, the treatment reversed prenatal stress-induced alterations in basal excitatory transmission and partially reversed the effect of stress on basal inhibitory transmission in the DRN.