INVESTIGADORES
ACOSTA Gabriela Beatriz
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
The effects of repeated early maternal separation and cold stress on brain development
Autor/es:
ADRIAN E SALATINO; MARIA MERCEDES ODEON; MARIA LUZ ORTA; GABRIELA ACOSTA
Lugar:
Huerta Grande, Córdoba. September 4-6, 2009
Reunión:
Congreso; First Joint Meeting of the Argentine Society for Neuroscience (SAN) and the Argentine Workshop in Neuroscience (TAN); 2009
Institución organizadora:
SAN y Taller de Neurociencias
Resumen:
During postnatal development, the central nervous system (CNS) is
highly sensitive to the effects of drugs, stressors and environment. Early
life events have profound consequences in growth and development. The
aim of this study was to investigate the consequences of repeated early
maternal separation and cold stress exposition on GABAergic function and
determinate whether the combination between cold and desensitization
to maternal separation was an age-specific event on adult brain. Rats
pups were separated from their mother and exposed to cold stress (4°C)
for 1 h at postnatal day (PD) 5, 7 and 13 during 20 days. These animals
were allowed to a 30 days recovery period until adulthood. The rats were
killed by decapitation and trunk blood samples were collected to measure
corticosterone levels. Frontal cortex (FC) and hippocampus (HIC) were
dissected in order to study GABA uptake. Our results shows that the time
course of repeated stress decreased GABA uptake only on FC at PD5,
while at PD7 diminished significantly either on FC or HIC. Also, at PD13,
we found a significant GABA uptake decrease on HIC. Chronic stress did
not alter the basal levels of corticosterone at the different ages studied.
These preliminary results support the notion that the development of the
FC is affected by stressors during early life. The findings are in agreement
with the hypothesis of compensatory changes development in response
to repeated stress. Although we need to carry out more tests, we propose
FC as key in the development of adaptative mechanisms.
Supported by
UBACYT B019 and CONICET, PIP 5869