Effect of prenatal stress on behavior after acute and chronic stress exposure. Involvement of neurotrophins.

CECILIA GABRIELA PASCUAN; MARÍA LAURA PALUMBO; MARÍA AURELIA ZORRILLA ZUBILETE; ANA MARÍA GENARO

Sitges, Barcelona

Congreso; International Society of Neuroimmunology (ISNI) 2010.; 2010

ISNI

It was described that Prenatal Stress (PS) stress can influence the behavior of the offspring. The aim of this work was investigate alterations in behavior and neurotrophins expression in adults animals subjected to PS. For this purpose, pregnant mice were individually restrained 2 hour a day, since gestational day 14, until delivery. Stressed offspring mice (n= 10) were tested at 2-months of age together with control matched mice (n=10). Animals of each group (n= 5) were submitted to chronic stress. Results shown that PS did not induce significant alteration in the performance in the open field and in alternation task. A decrease in BNDF levels by Real-Time PCR was observed in hippocampus. Moreover BNDF and NT3 levels were decrease in lymphocytes. On the other hand these animals showed a poorer performance in the alternation test after exposure to chronic stress respect to normal animals. In addition an important decrease in BNDF levels in hippocampus and BNDF and NT3 levels in lymphocytes were observed in both control and PS animals after chronic stress exposure. These results indicate that PS induces a greater sensitivity to the deleterious effects of chronic stress exposure in adult life. Moreover, the lymphoid cell could be a peripheral marker of the alterations that occur in the hippocampus.