Prenatal LPS exposure reduced offspring mother's recognition in infancy by olfactory cues

Abstract

Pre or perinatal events influencing maternal and offspring interactions might contribute to the development of behavioral or neuropsychiatric disorders. This study investigated the relationships of maternal‐sickness behavior during pregnancy in offspring development and in the olfactory system preferences in infancy and adulthood. Pregnant Wistar rats were administered with lipopolysaccharide (LPS, 100 µg/kg, i.p.) on gestation day (GD) 9.5. Dam's sickness behavior was analyzed, and at birth, the offspring number and weight were recorded. Male offspring were evaluated through physical development, and the olfactory preference at the 7th and 90th days of life. Relative to control group, the results showed that LPS treatment : 1) decreased the open‐field behavior, food intake, and weight gain of dams, but no pyrexia; 2) reduced the number of rat pups, but did not alter the physical development; 3) reduced the mother recognition by the olfactory test infancy; 4)did not modify the offspring olfactory preference in adulthood. These data revealed that prenatal LPS reduced mothers pup's recognition by olfactory cues when in infancy, but this alterations did not remain in adulthood.