Offspring Of Stressed Mothers Research Articles

Traumatized women's infants are bigger than children of mothers without traumas.

Life history theory predicts that experiencing stress during the early period of life will result in accelerated growth and earlier maturation. Indeed, animal and some human studies documented a faster pace of growth in the offspring of stressed mothers. Recent advances in epigenetics suggest that the effects of early developmental stress might be passed across the generations. However, evidence for such intergenerational transmission is scarce, at least in humans. Here we report the results of the study investigating the association between childhood trauma in mothers and physical growth in their children during the first months of life. Anthropometric and psychological data were collected from 99 mothers and their exclusively breastfed children at the age of 5 months. The mothers completed the Early Life Stress Questionnaire to assess childhood trauma. The questionnaire includes questions about the most traumatic events that they had experienced before the age of 12 years. Infant growth was evaluated based on the anthropometric measurements of weight, length, and head circumference. Also, to control for the size of maternal investment, the composition of breast milk samples taken at the time of infant anthropometric measurements was investigated. The children of mothers with higher early life stress tended to have higher weight and bigger head circumference. The association between infant anthropometrics and early maternal stress was not affected by breast milk composition, suggesting that the effect of maternal stress on infant growth was independent of the size of maternal investment. Our results demonstrate that early maternal trauma may affect the pace of growth in the offspring and, in consequence, lead to a faster life history strategy. This effect might be explained via changes in offspring epigenetics.

Physical exercise during pregnancy minimizes PTZ-induced behavioral manifestations in prenatally stressed offspring.

Stress during gestation has been shown to affect susceptibility and intensity of seizures in offspring. Environmental stimuli, such as maternal physical exercise, have shown to be beneficial for brain development. Although studies have demonstrated the deleterious influence of stress during pregnancy on seizure manifestation in offspring, very little is known on how to minimize these effects. This study verified whether physical exercise during the pregnancy associated with prenatal stress minimizes seizure susceptibility in offspring at the beginning of postnatal development. Pregnant rats and male pups were divided into the following groups: control, stress, stress/forced exercise, and stress/voluntary exercise. Behavioral manifestations were analyzed after injection of pentylenetetrazol (PTZ; 45 and 60mg/kg) at ages P15 and P25. Increased behavioral manifestations and seizure severity was observed in the stress group compared with the control group at both ages. At the dose of 45mg/kg, offspring of stressed mothers who performed both physical exercise models showed an increase in latency for the first manifestation and decrease in the seizures severity at both ages compared with the mothers groups who were only stressed. Prenatal restraint stress potentiated PTZ-induced seizure behavior, and both forced and voluntary exercise during gestation attenuates the negative effects of PTZ-induced offspring.

S.26.02 How do epigenetic changes contribute to the aetiology of psychiatric developmental disorders in the offspring of stressed mothers?

S.26.02 How do epigenetic changes contribute to the aetiology of psychiatric developmental disorders in the offspring of stressed mothers?

The Effects of Gestational Psychological Stress on Neonatal Mouse Intestinal Development

BackgroundPsychological stress during pregnancy has been shown to cause subsequent harm to the fetus and newborn. Many studies focus on neurodevelopmental outcomes, but little is known about the effect of gestational stress on intestinal immunity and development. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of psychological stress during pregnancy on intestinal architecture and growth in newborns. MethodsEight-week-old C57BL6 littermates underwent timed breeding. Pregnant dams were subjected to 1 h of daily psychological stress by using a well-established restraint model during days E7-E14. The distal ileum of 2-wk-old offspring of stressed mothers and nonstressed controls was harvested for histologic analysis. Slides were blinded to measure villus height and crypt depth and surface area. Serum was obtained to measure serum corticosterone levels. An explant model was used to measure corticosterone on the intestinal stem cell marker Leucine-rich repeat-containing G-protein coupled receptor 5 (LGR5) and growth factors epidermal growth factor receptor and insulin-like growth factor-1. ResultsThe villus height, crypt depth, and surface area were significantly decreased in newborn exposed to stress during gestation. In addition, corticosterone levels were elevated in 2-wk-old mice exposed to stress. Real-time polymerase chain reaction revealed that explants exposed to corticosterone had a decrease in LGR5 compared with controls and an increase in epidermal growth factor receptor. ConclusionsHere, we establish that neonatal mice from mothers that were subjected to psychological stress during pregnancy have significantly shorter villi and crypts compared with controls. In addition, pups from stressed mothers have decreased expression levels of the intestinal stem cell marker LGR5. These findings will aid in determining the effect of gestational psychological stress on intestinal development and stem cell plasticity.

The microstructure of the long bones in rats — descendants gestational stressed mothers under conditions of hypokinesia

High percentage of the children in mothers who received ges­tational stress already at a young age suffer from hypertension, obesity, cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes, i.e. prenatally programmed adult diseases. Wherein it leaves unclear character of stress influence in pregnant women on fetal skeletal formation and characteristics of the microstructure of the bones in offsprings out of such mothers. Objective : To determine the microstructure of bone tissue in female rats whose mothers had subjected to gestational stress in condition of functional rest and under additional stressing by means of hypokinesia. Methods : Modeling of socio-emotional stress in pregnant rats during the first trimester of pregnancy, getting the offsprings in 12 months of age and reproduction of hypokinesia in half of them. We examined femurs using methods of histology. Results : While pathomorphological examination it was found that in offsprings from intact mothers microstructure of егигдфк bones in all their parts was unchanged. In offsprings from stressed mothers in metaphyseal cancellous bone trabeculae there were revealed marked signs of violated osteogenesis and accelerated bone resorption. In the cortex of the femur in these descendants there were found osteons with irregular shape, rem­nants of fragmentary structures, widened channels of osteons. Hypokinesia in descendants of intact mothers did not cause any significant effect on the microstructure of the femur. At the same time after hypokinezia in offspring of stressed mothers there were obsrved signs of destruction as a spongy tissue (trabecular thinning, widening of bone marrow spaces, violation of the trabecular mesh) and compact bone tissue (resorption according to canalicular type, foci of lysis, uneven coloring of matrix). Conclusion: As a result of hypokinesia in the offspring of embrionally stressed mothers structure of the bone tissue violates. They constitute a group of risk on osteopenia developing and require attention to processes of the skeleton formation.

Prenatal stress alters sensitivity to benzodiazepines in adult rats

In rats, prenatal stress (PS) induces persistent changes in the brain that eventually can be translated in altered behavior leading to a greater consumption of psychostimulants in the offspring during adulthood. Though many studies have been carried on the effects of PS on stimulant drug responsiveness, little is known about susceptibility to benzodiazepines dependence in this animal model.We hereby examined the long-lasting impact of PS exposure during the last 10 days of pregnancy on the vulnerability to benzodiazepine addiction in adult rats. In addition, we also investigated the link between PS and the sensitivity to anxiolytics.Our results reveal that PS offspring exhibited a significantly greater preference to the diazepam-paired side than control offspring in the conditioned place preference. Importantly, we found that PS enhanced the anxiolytic effects of diazepam in the elevated plus maze paradigm.This work demonstrates that PS increased the abuse potential of benzodiazepines and the sensitivity to anxiolytic drugs in offspring of stressed mothers. Thus, investigating the interactions among addiction and PS may contribute to a better understanding how early life events modify neural circuitry and thereby behavior.

LEPTIN RESISTANCE AS A CAUSE OF LACK OF EATING BEHAVIOR CHANGES IN HYPERLEPTINEMIA AND OBESITY IN FEMALE RATS — OFFSPRING OF GESTATIONAL STRESSED MOTHERS

In the experiment on Wistar rats was studied age dynamics of body weight in the postnatal period in the offspring of gestational stressed mothers, which was born with low weight and reduced levels of leptin in the blood plasma. It was shown that adult offspring of stressed mothers have increased body weight and visceral fat mass, increased levels of leptin in the blood compared to the offspring of intact mothers. However, by the number of food consumed offspring of stressed mothers did not differ from intact offspring. Long-term injection of exogenous leptin does not affect the eating behavior of offspring of stressed mothers, although inhibits the eating behavior the intact animals. It was concluded about availability of «economic type» energy metabolism and insulin resistance in the hypothalamic structures of offspring of gestational stressed mothers

Effects of chronic stress during pregnancy on maternal performance in the guinea pig (Cavia aperea f. porcellus)

Stress experienced during pregnancy can have persistent impact on the female's physiology and behaviour not only during but even beyond pregnancy. The present study aimed to evaluate such long-term effects of stress in terms of repeated strobe light exposure during early to mid gestation on behavioural aspects of mothering activities and lactational effort in lactating guinea pigs. We found that maternal behaviour was negatively affected by stress experience during pregnancy with treatment females developing a higher level of offspring-directed aggression than controls. In addition, our measure of lactational performances showed tendencies of lowered milk supply and longer pup suckling durations in stressed females. We suggest that this may represent a strategy to advance infant weaning following demanding conditions caused by chronic stress experience during pregnancy.

LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF MOTHERS STRESS IN THE FIRST THIRD OF PREGNANCY ON THE STRUCTURAL AND FUNCTIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PANCREAS IN ADULT OFFSPRINGS

A comparative study of the levels of corticosterone, histostructure insulin-produced and function of pancreatic islets in adult male rats — offsprings of intact and gestational-stressed mothers in the basal state and after hypokinesia was conducted. Found that in a state of physiological rest concentration of insulin in the offspring of stressed mothers higher than in intact rats. For this group of animals is characterized disproportionate increase in insulin levels increased towards to concentrations of glucocorticoids that regarded as instability of adaptation. By histological studies of pancreatic islets shown the increasing number of islets in the offspring of stressed-mothers while reducing their size. Stress of hypokinesia leads to active formation of new islets and increased insulin levels in the blood plasma stressed offsprings. “Structural and functional consequence” of gestational maternal stress on level of pancreatic islets offsprings considered as a predisposition for the development of the metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes.

DISTINCTIVE FEATURES OF FEEDING BEHAVIOUR AND THE FAT TISSUE FORMATION IN THE FEMALE RAT OFFSPRING OF MOTHERS STRESSED IN PREGNANCY

The study was aimed at investigation of distinctive features of feeding behaviour and fat tissue formation in the reproductive aged female rats whose mothers were stressed in the first tirm of the pregnancy. It has been shown that adult stressed offspring had higher body mass and the visceral fat tissue. The influence of stress factors in postnatal life resulted in the increased body mass and mesenteric fat weight along with the decreased food intake. It has been proposed that the neuroendocrine system change in the offspring of stressed mothers led to the change of the energy metabolism and the development of obesity

Effects of low stress during pregnancy on certain parameters of the offspring

In recent years the effect of intense stress applied during pregnancy has been studied. In this work, we exposed the mother to low immobilization stress throughout the entire pregnancy. This treatment that increased the sexual capacity in males had no detectable effects on the reproductive behavior of females. A positive role of this phenomenon in nature is suggested, as the offspring of stressed mothers would be more capable of facing difficult and selective environments.