Prenatal corticosterone altered glucocorticoid receptor and glucocorticoid metabolic enzyme gene expression in chicken ovary

Abstract

Abstract Objective The acute stress response is an adaptive physiological mechanism which allows an organism to respond and survive deleterious stimuli in the surrounding environment. In mammals, prenatal glucocorticoids exposure (GCs) reprograms offspring phenotype and reproductive performance. In the present study, we investigated potential prenatal GC exposure on the glucocorticoid receptor (GR), mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) and GC metabolic genes mRNA expression in the ovary of chickens. Methods We injected low (0.2 μg) and high (1.0 μg) doses of corticosterone (CORT) in ovo before incubation and measured the changes in GCs metabolic enzymes genes in ovarian follicles 1 (F1), F2 and F3 post hatching. Results The high dose CORT treatment significantly ( P P in ovo injection of high dose CORT significantly ( P Conclusions Prenatal CORT exposure modified GR, MR and GC metabolic enzymes gene expression in ovarian follicles, thus it may reprogram reproductive function.