Effects of maternal rats exposed to chronic unpredictable stress before pregnancy on the postpartum behavior and neurobiology of themselves and their progency

Abstract

Objective To determine the effects of maternal rats exposed to chronic unpredictable stress before pregnancy on the behavior and neurobiology of the mother and their offspring. Methods Two-month Virgin female Sprague-Dawley(SD) rats were applied to study.Females were housed with sexually experienced males (ratio 3: 1) for propagation after 21-day chronic unpredictable stress.The behaviors of rats and their two-month-offspring were tested.The two-month rats were injected intraperitoneally with BrdU, then the brains were removed and 20 μm frozen sections were used to detect the neurogenesis of hippocampus. Results 1.Open field test: after lactation, CUS+ Pre group((720.52±238.99)cm), CUS group((995.62±191.77)cm), CON group((464.95±210.11)cm) and CON+ Pre group((740.76±281.48)cm) had statistic difference in total distance(P 0.05). Conclusion The 21d CUS before pregnancy induce the anxiety-like behavior and depressive-like behavior in maternal rats, and lactation can attenuate influence of stress to protect maternal rats.There is no effect on the behavior and cell proliferation of hippocampus in adult progeny by chronic unpredictable stress exposure before pregnancy.However, there is the difference of anxiety-like behavior in both female and male two-month-progeny. Key words: Chronic unpredictable stress; Pregnancy; Depression; Anxiety; Dentate gyrus of hippocampus; Neurogenesis