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Published on: June 10, 2013
Age-dependent effect of prenatal stress on hippocampal cell proliferation in female rats
Muriel Koehl1, Valerie Lemaire, Michel Le Moal
1INSERM U862, Neurocentre Magendie, Neurogenesis and Physiopathology Group, Bordeaux, France. muriel.koehl@inserm.fr
Insights
Prenatal stress (PS) impacts offspring development, affecting cognitive function and stress response. In female rats, PS impairs hippocampal cell proliferation, but this effect is age-dependent, appearing only in senescence.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Endocrinology
Background:
- Prenatal stress (PS) can negatively impact offspring development, leading to cognitive deficits and altered stress responses.
- The hippocampus, crucial for cognition and stress regulation, is affected by PS, with reduced cell proliferation and neurogenesis observed in males.
- Studies on PS effects in female offspring have yielded conflicting results regarding hippocampal cell proliferation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the age-dependent effects of prenatal stress on hippocampal cell proliferation in female rats.
- To determine if the impact of PS on neurogenesis in females changes across different life stages.
Main Methods:
- Prenatal stress was induced in pregnant rats.
- Hippocampal cell proliferation was assessed in female offspring at juvenile, young, middle-aged, and old stages.
- Adrenal gland weight was measured as an indicator of stress axis activity.
Main Results:
- Prenatal stress significantly decreased hippocampal cell proliferation in female rats, but only in the oldest age group (senescence).
- Adrenal gland weight increased in senescent female rats exposed to prenatal stress.
- These findings indicate an age-dependent effect of prenatal stress on hippocampal neurogenesis in females.
Conclusions:
- The detrimental effects of prenatal stress on hippocampal cell proliferation in female rats are specific to senescence.
- Protective factors may mask the impact of prenatal stress on hippocampal cell proliferation during adulthood in females.
- These results highlight the importance of considering age when evaluating the long-term consequences of prenatal stress in females.
Abstract:
Stressors occurring during pregnancy can alter the developmental trajectory of offspring and lead to, among other deleterious effects, cognitive deficits and hyperactivity of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis. A recent feature of the prenatal stress (PS) model is its reported influence on structural plasticity in hippocampal formation, which sustains both cognitive functions and stress responsiveness. Indeed, we and others have previously reported that males exposed to stress in utero are characterized by a decrease in hippocampal cell proliferation, and consequently neurogenesis, from adolescence to senescence. Recent studies in females submitted to PS have reported conflicting results, ranging from no effect to a decrease in cell proliferation. We hypothesized that changes in cell proliferation in PS female rats are age dependent. To address this issue, we examined the impact of PS on hippocampal cell proliferation in juvenile, young, middle-aged and old females. As hypothesized, we found an age-dependent effect of PS in female rats as cell proliferation was significantly decreased only when animals reached senescence, a time when adrenal gland weight also increased. These data suggest that the deleterious effects of PS on hippocampal cell proliferation in females are either specific to senescence or masked during adulthood by protective factors.
