Abstract
Depression during pregnancy and the postpartum period is a growing health problem, which affects up to 20% of women. Currently, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRIs) medications are commonly used for treatment of maternal depression. Unfortunately, there is very little research on the long-term effect of maternal depression and perinatal SSRI exposure on offspring development. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the role of exposure to fluoxetine during development on affective-like behaviors and hippocampal neurogenesis in adolescent offspring in a rodent model of maternal depression. To do this, gestationally stressed and non-stressed Sprague-Dawley rat dams were treated with either fluoxetine (5 mg/kg/day) or vehicle beginning on postnatal day 1 (P1). Adolescent male and female offspring were divided into 4 groups: 1) prenatal stress+fluoxetine exposure, 2) prenatal stress+vehicle, 3) fluoxetine exposure alone, and 4) vehicle alone. Adolescent offspring were assessed for anxiety-like behavior using the Open Field Test and depressive-like behavior using the Forced Swim Test. Brains were analyzed for endogenous markers of hippocampal neurogenesis via immunohistochemistry. Results demonstrate that maternal fluoxetine exposure reverses the reduction in immobility evident in prenatally stressed adolescent offspring. In addition, maternal fluoxetine exposure reverses the decrease in hippocampal cell proliferation and neurogenesis in maternally stressed adolescent offspring. This research provides important evidence on the long-term effect of fluoxetine exposure during development in a model of maternal adversity.
Highlights
The aim of the present study was to investigate the developmental effect of fluoxetine, a popular SSRI antidepressant used during pregnancy, in a model of maternal adversity, on anxiety and depression-related behavior and hippocampal neurogenesis in adolescent male and female offspring
Further analysis by sex revealed that PSV males made fewer central entries than CV, CF and PSF adolescent males, this did not reach significance (p$0.09) and there were no significant effects of treatment or condition in female adolescent offspring (p$0.14)
Developmental exposure to fluoxetine reduces weight gain in adolescent offspring We found that postnatal fluoxetine exposure, regardless of exposure to prenatal maternal stress, significantly decreased postweaning weight gain in adolescent male and female offspring
Summary
Depression during pregnancy and the postpartum period is a growing health concern that affects up to 20% of women [1,2,3,4]. Depression and anxiety, can have long-term effects on the physical and mental development of children [5,6,7]. Antenatal maternal depression can lead to neurobehavioral disturbances, such as impaired cognitive and social developmental outcomes [6,7,8,9,10,11]. Given the development effect of exposure to maternal depression, it is crucial to treat this disorder in order to improve maternal and child outcomes
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