Glutamate metabolism in a model of prenatal restraint stress in rats

ADROVER, E.; PALLARES, ME; BAIER, CJ; MONTELEONE, M; BROCCO, M; WAAGEPETERSEN H; SHOUSBOE, A; ANTONELLI, MC

Washington

Congreso; 41st Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience 2011 (SFN).; 2011

Society for Neuroscience (SFN)

Episodes of stress suffered by the mother during pregnancy generate changes in the fetal environment affecting central nervous system development of the offspring. Previous studies from our laboratory have shown that adult offspring of stressed rats exhibited higher levels of glutamate receptors than control rats. These animals also show long-lasting astroglial reaction and a reduced dendritic arborization with synaptic loss. Since metabolism of glutamate is linked to a cycle between neurons and sorrounding astroglia, our results suggest that glutamate neurotransmitter pathways might be impaired in the brain of a prenatally stressed rats. To study the effect of prenatal stress (PS) on the metabolism of glutamate, pregnant rats were subjected to restrain stress during the last week of gestation. Brain extracts of PS rats were evaluated by mass spectroscopy to measure the content of glutamate and other metabolites. The results show no differences in glutamate metabolism between control and PS animals.. We also evaluated glutamate uptake and the protein level of glutamate transporters. Our results show that glutamate uptake of adult (PND 60) PS rats is significantly higher than in control rats. This would indicate that prenatal stress produces long-term changes in the glutamatergic system modulating the expression of glutamate receptors and altering the normal synaptic transmission of the adult brain