Prenatal stress effects on glutamate transporters, GLT1 and GLAST

ADROVER, EZEQUIELA; PALLARÉS, MARÍA EUGENIA; BAIER, CARLOS JAVIER; MONTELEONE, MELISA C; BROCCO, MA; WAAGEPETERSEN, H; SCHOUSBOE, A; ANTONELLI, MARTA C

Congreso; Reunión Anual SAN; 2011

Sociedada Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias

Episodes of stress sufferedby the mother during pregnancy generate changes in the fetal environment affecting nervous systemdevelopment of the offspring. Our previous studies have shown that offspring of stressed rats exhibited higherlevels of glutamate receptors, astroglial reaction and reduced dendritic arborization with synaptic loss. Sincemetabolism of glutamate is linked to astroglia, the results suggest that glutamate pathways might be impairedin the prenatally stressed rats. To study the effect of prenatal stress (PS) on the glutamate system, pregnantrats were subjected to restrain stress. Frontal cortex and hippocampus of PS and control (C) rats wereevaluated by mass spectroscopy to measure the content of glutamate and other metabolites. In this animalmodel we also evaluated the glutamate transporters, GLT1 and GLAST. Using gliosomes and synaptosomeswe measured 3H-glutamate uptake and the GLT1 AND GLAST proteins and mRNA levels. Our results showthat glutamate uptake of adult PS rats is significantly higher and we observed an overexpression of GLT1protein and its mRNA in the hippocampus. This would indicate that PS produces long-term changes on theexpression of glutamate receptors