Environmental enrichment: An experimental approach to evaluate the importance of maternal lifestyle before and during pregnancy

JULIETA A. SCHANDER; MANUEL L. WOLFSON; CORA CYMERYNG; CAROLINA MARVALDI; LORENA JURIOL; ANA M. FRANCHI; JULIETA AISEMBERG; FERNANDO CORREA; FEDERICO JENSEN

Buenos Aires

Simposio; Congreso IFPA 2019-VIII SLIMP; 2019; 2019

International Federation of Placenta Associations -Latin American Symposium on Maternal-Fetal Interaction and Placenta

Maternal lifestyle affects both mother health and pregnancy outcome inhumans. Several studies have demonstrated that interventions oriented towardsreducing stress and anxiety have positive effects on pregnancy complicationssuch as preeclampsia, excessive gestational weight, gestational diabetes andpreterm birth. In this work, we proposed the environmental enrichment (EE),defined as a noninvasive and biological significant stimulus of the sensorypathway combined with voluntary physical activity, that prevented preterm birth(PTB) rate in a 41% in an inflammatory mouse model induced by the systemicadministration of bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Furthermore, we foundthat EE modulates maternal metabolism and produces an anti-inflammatoryenvironment that contributes to pregnancy maintenance. In pregnant mice uterus,EE reduces the expression of TLR4 and CD14 (the LPS receptor and itscoactivator protein), preventing the LPS-induced increase in PGE2 an PGF2αrelease and nitric oxide synthase (NOS) activity. In cervical tissue, EEinhibits cervical ripening events, such as PGE2 release, matrixmetalloproteinase (MMP)-9 increased activity and neutrophil recruitment,therefore conserving cervical function. Finaly we demonstrated that the enrichment of maternal environment protects the offspring against the deletereous effect of the intrauterine inflammatory environment. We proposed that EE exposure couldmimic the stress and anxiety-reducing techniques mentioned above, explaining,at least partially, the beneficial effects of having a healthy lifestyle beforeand during gestation.