Long term effects of prenatal stressand early doption in neurotransmission and behaviour in the adult rat

MARTA C ANTONELLI

Panamericano Buenos Aires Hotel

Simposio; 13º Congreso Internacional de Psiquiatría; 2006

Asociacion Argentina de Psiquiatria

  Stress during pregnancy has been shown to result in a variety of behavioural and neurochemical alterations. Repeated restraint during the last week of pregnancy was used as a model of prenatal stress, and adoption at birth was used to change the postnatal environment. Adult offsprings of rats stressed during pregnancy (S) exhibited higher levels of anxiety than control rats (C). In contrast, offsprings of control mothers but raised by rats stressed during pregnancy (S/C) showed similar levels of anxiety to stressed groups S/S and S. Levels of anxiety were also similar among C/S, C/C and C groups. Neurochemically, dopamine (DA) D2 receptors increased in medial prefrontal (MPC) and dorsal frontal cortex (DFC), hippocampal CA1 region and nucleus accumbens core (NacC) but did not change in medial and lateral caudate putamen (CPu-M, CPu-L) of prenatally stressed rats. Glutamate (Glu) NMDA receptor increased in MPC, DFC, CPu-M, NacC and Nac shell while Group III metabotropic Glu receptors increased in MPC and DFC. All of these receptors were differentially regulated in cross-fostered adult offsprings. These findings suggest that the enhanced anxiety in adult offsprings depends upon the stressful condition of the mother that raised the offsprings. The differential pattern of DA and Glu receptor expression reflects the high vulnerability of DA and Glu systems to variations in maternal care and postnatal handling, especially in cortical and limbic areas of the brain.