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Updated: May 13, 2026
06:39
Using a Murine Model of Psychosocial Stress in Pregnancy as a Translationally Relevant Paradigm for Psychiatric Disorders in Mothers and Infants
Published on: June 13, 2021
Transgenerational programming of maternal behaviour by prenatal stress
Isaac D Ward1, Fabíola C R Zucchi, Jerrah C Robbins
1Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience, University of Lethbridge, 4401 University Drive, Lethbridge, AB, Canada T1K3M4.
BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth
|March 1, 2013
Summary
Gestational stress in rats can alter maternal behaviors across generations. Offspring and grand-offspring exposed to stress showed reduced tail chasing, indicating transgenerational inheritance of stress responses.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Behavioral Biology
- Genetics
Background:
- Peripartum events significantly influence offspring physiology and behavior.
- Stress during gestation can have lasting effects on maternal behavior.
- Transgenerational inheritance of stress responses is a critical area of study.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the transgenerational effects of gestational stress on maternal behavior in rats.
- To characterize changes in maternal antepartum behaviors following prenatal stress exposure.
- To determine if stress responses are inherited across generations.
Main Methods:
- Pregnant dams (parental generation, F0) were exposed to stress during gestation (days 12-18).
- Offspring (F1) and grand-offspring (F2) were either stressed or non-stressed.
- Maternal antepartum tail chasing behaviors were analyzed in pregnant dams of subsequent generations.
Main Results:
- Groups exposed to stress (F1-SS, F2-SNN, F2-SSS) exhibited a significant reduction in tail chasing behaviors compared to controls.
- Multigenerational stress (F2-SSS) showed a more pronounced effect than transgenerational stress (F2-SNN), leading to an absence of tail chasing.
- Altered maternal behavior suggests programming by inherited stress responses.
Conclusions:
- Antepartum maternal behavior in rats is programmed by the transgenerational inheritance of stress responses.
- Reduced tail chasing behavior may serve as an indicator of an activated stress response during gestation.
- Gestational stress has profound and lasting impacts on maternal behavior across generations.
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