CSIR- Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Uppal Road, Hyderabad 500 007, India.
J Biosci. 2021;46.
Prenatal environment significantly influences mammalian fetal development and adverse conditions have life-long consequences for the offspring health. Research has revealed that a wide variety of prenatal stress factors lead to increased risk of vulnerability to neuropsychiatric disorders in the individuals. Multiple mediators are involved in stress transfer from mother to the developing fetus, with stress hormone cortisol being a chief player. Further, the developmental programming effects of prenatal stress have been observed in the form of alterations in the offspring brain at different levels. This review covers stress transfer mediators such as cortisol, serotonin, maternal cytokines, reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the maternal microbiota, and their role in fetal programming. Prenatal stress leads to alterations in the offspring brain at multiple levels, from molecular and cellular to structural. These alterations eventually result in lasting phenotypic alterations such as in the offspring behavior and cognition. Different brain alterations induced by prenatal stress such as in neural pruning processes, neural circuit formation, brain structural connectivity and epigenetic systems regulating neural gene expression are under focus in the second part of the review. The latter constitutes a key molecular mechanism involved in prenatal stress effects and has been discussed in more detail.
产前环境对哺乳动物胎儿发育有显著影响，不良环境对后代健康有终身影响。研究表明，多种产前应激因素会增加个体患神经精神疾病的易感性。多种介质参与了从母亲到发育中胎儿的应激传递，其中应激激素皮质醇是主要参与者。此外，还观察到产前应激的发育编程效应以不同水平的后代大脑改变的形式出现。这篇综述涵盖了应激传递介质，如皮质醇、血清素、母体细胞因子、活性氧（ROS）和母体微生物群，以及它们在胎儿编程中的作用。产前应激会导致后代大脑在多个水平发生改变，从分子和细胞到结构。这些改变最终导致持久的表型改变，如后代的行为和认知。产前应激引起的不同大脑改变，如神经修剪过程、神经回路形成、大脑结构连接和调节神经基因表达的表观遗传系统，是综述第二部分的重点。后者构成了涉及产前应激效应的关键分子机制，并在本文中进行了更详细的讨论。
