Altered male hypothalamic-pituitary-testicular axis as a consequence of prenatal stress exposure

PALLARES ME, GONZALEZ-CALVAR SI, BOURGUIGNON NS, ADROVER E, KATUNAR MR, BAER CJ, LUX-LANTOS V, CALANDRA RS, ANTONELLI M.C.

Atenas

Congreso; XXIII Biennal Meeting de la International Society for Neurochemistry & European Society for Neurochemistry. ISN-ESN; 2011

Society for Neurochemistry

The exposure to adverse events in early life can alter midbrain dopaminergic system (DA) activity, suggesting that its development is sensitive to disruption by brief exposure to early stressors. Numerous clinical studies demonstrated that several DA dysfunctions have a higher incidence in men than in women. Additionally, the onset ages of these disorders closely parallels the onset and decline ages of the reproductive period. Moreover it was shown that androgens can influence forebrain DA system. We have previously demonstrated that prenatal stress (PS) exerts an impairment of DA metabolism in limbic brain areas especially after puberty indicating a particular sensitivity of DA system to variations in gonadal hormones peaks. The aims of this study was to evaluate several aspects of the hypothalamic-pituitary-testicular (HPT) axis status of males rats exposed to PS. Stress consisted on a 3 daily- 45min restraint session from day 14th of gestation to delivery. Follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), Luteinizing hormone (LH), Testosterone (T) and 5-a Androstane- 3-a, 17b- Diol (DIOL) serum levels of 28, 35, 45, 60 and 75 days old male progeny were determined by radioimmunoassay. Testes of 35 and 60 days old animals were processed for histological morphometric measures and for androgen receptor (AR) quantification by western blot technique. Hormones serum levels analyses revealed that PS diminished FSH levels at post natal day (PND) 28 in a 70% in comparison with control group (C). LH was decreased in an 88 and 66% at PND 28 and 75, respectively, in PS group and also T serum levels were diminished at 75 days old PS rats (58,6%). DIOL levels were increased at PND 28 and 45 (61 and 63%) on PS group. Additionally, the rate of spermatogenesis was accelerated on PS rats and the mean tubular diameter was found increased at PND 35. However, the mean Leydig cell’s number was reduced on PS rats. Finally, we did not find statistical changes between groups on AR levels in testis measured by western blot. These findings suggest that stress during gestation induces long term effects on the male progeny HPT axis. Since gonadal hormones can influence DA system development by inducing plastic changes in the brain, a disbalanced hormone milieu might be responsible for the DA metabolism alterations observed in our previous studies.