Prenatal stress effect glutamate transporters, GLT1 and GLAST

ADROVER E; PALLARES ME; BAER, CJ; MONTELEONE, M; BROCCO, M; WAAGEPETERSEN, H; SCHOUSBOE, A; ANTONELLI, MC

Cordoba

Congreso; XXVI Congreso Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigaciones en Neurociencias; 2011

Sociedad Argentina de Investigaciones en Neurociencias

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 glutamate system, pregnant rats were subjected to restrain stress during the last week of gestation. Two brain areas, frontal cortex and hippocampus, of PS and control (C) rats were evaluated by mass spectroscopy to measure the content of glutamate and other metabolites. In this animal model we also evaluated the glutamate transporters, GLT1 and GLAST. Using gliosomes and synaptosomes we measured 3H-glutamate uptake in 60 days old rats and we evaluated GLT1 AND GLAST proteins and mRNA. Our results show that glutamate uptake of adult (PND 60) PS rats is significantly higher than in control rats and we observed an over expression of GLT1 protein and mRNA in the hippocampus. 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.