Alterations in behavioral learning due to prenatal stress in rats.

DAMIÁN MAUR; CAROLINA ROMERO; MARÍA LAURA PALUMBO; ANA MARÍA GENARO; MARÍA A ZORRILLA ZUBILETE

Córdoba

Congreso; XXXVIII Reunión Anual de la SAFE; 2006

Asociación Argentina de Farmacología Experimental

The effect of stress during early development stages induces both immediate and latter alterations that are reflected through changes in the neurochemical, cognitive and behavioral systems. Experiments performed in animals have shown that maternal prenatal stress affects their offspring. However, the intracellular mechanisms involved in these alterations have not been fully elucidated. The aim of the present work was to evaluate behavioural and neurochemical changes induced by prenatal stress (PS) in different regions of the offspring´s brain, such as cerebellum and hippocampus. The PS procedure was performed every day from day 11 of pregnancy until delivery. Our results show behavioural alterations in PS animals respect to control animals, evaluated by radial-maze test [reduced locomotion and an increase number of errors in PS rats at 30, 60 and 90 days of age] by passive avoidance conditioning task PS rats showed lower latency. The activity of constitutive nitric oxide synthase (NOS) was increased in the cerebellum but not in hippocampus of PS animals at 15 and 30 days of age.  These results demonstrate that early changes in NOS activity induced by prenatal stress might be involved in long term learning deficits, evidenced as a pourer performance in behavioral tasks. Our results show behavioural alterations in PS animals respect to control animals, evaluated by radial-maze test [reduced locomotion and an increase number of errors in PS rats at 30, 60 and 90 days of age] by passive avoidance conditioning task PS rats showed lower latency. The activity of constitutive nitric oxide synthase (NOS) was increased in the cerebellum but not in hippocampus of PS animals at 15 and 30 days of age.  These results demonstrate that early changes in NOS activity induced by prenatal stress might be involved in long term learning deficits, evidenced as a pourer performance in behavioral tasks. Our results show behavioural alterations in PS animals respect to control animals, evaluated by radial-maze test [reduced locomotion and an increase number of errors in PS rats at 30, 60 and 90 days of age] by passive avoidance conditioning task PS rats showed lower latency. The activity of constitutive nitric oxide synthase (NOS) was increased in the cerebellum but not in hippocampus of PS animals at 15 and 30 days of age.  These results demonstrate that early changes in NOS activity induced by prenatal stress might be involved in long term learning deficits, evidenced as a pourer performance in behavioral tasks.