EFFECT OF PRE-CONCEPTIONAL EMOTIONAL STRESS OF PARENTS ON THE HPG AXIS OF OFFSPRING

Abstract

Introduction: The most of studies have focused on the effects of different types of stressors on the health of the mother as well as on her offspring. But no study has investigated the emotional stress applied before gestation, and its effects on the HPG axis of offspring. Our experiment aims to elucidate the effects and the transmission of stress, experienced before pregnancy from mother to offspring and to see whether this stress persists into adulthood or not.
 Materials and Methods: Chronic restraint stress (emotional stress), it was applied an hour's time each day, for four days a week, over a period of five weeks before gestation. Female rats were placed in perforated plastic cylinders. Our study was carried out on the offspring (males and females) at the age of 65 days, and then was decapitated, the blood was collected and the gonads were weighed.
 Results: Steroid hormones and gonads: Female offspring; results show a highly significant increase of progesterone compared to controls offspring at the adulthood, on the other hand, a significant decrease of the relative weight of ovaries.
 Male offspring; a highly significant decrease in the concentration of testosterone, and a highly significant decrease of the relative weight of testicles.
 Glycemia: showed a very highly significant increase in the stressed offspring males and females compared to the control’s offspring.
 Conclusion: The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal HPA axis of stressed mothers was disrupted, leading to disruption of the Hypothalamic-pituitary- gonadal HPG axis of the offspring.