Effect of prenatal stress and extremely low-frequency electromagnetic fields on anxiety-like behavior in female rats: With an emphasis on prefrontal cortex and hippocampus

Prenatal stress (PS) is a problematic situation resulting in psychological implications such as social anxiety. Ubiquitous extremely low-frequency electromagnetic fields (ELF-EMF) have been confirmed as a potential physiological stressor; however, useful neuroregenerative effect of these types of electromagnetic fields has also frequently been reported. The aim of the present study was to survey the interaction of PS and ELF-EMF on anxiety-like behavior.

A total of 24 female rats 40 days of age were distributed into four groups of 6 rats each: control, stress (their mothers were exposed to stress), EMF (their mothers underwent to ELF-EMF), and EMF/stress (their mothers concurrently underwent to stress and ELF-EMF). The rats were assayed using elevated plus-maze and open field tests.

Expressions of the hippocampus GAP-43, BDNF, and caspase-3 (cas-3) were detected by immunohistochemistry in Cornu Ammonis 1 (CA1) and dentate gyrus (DG) of the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex (PFC). Anxiety-like behavior increased in all treatment groups. Rats in the EMF/stress group presented more serious anxiety-like behavior. In all treatment groups, upregulated expression of cas-3 was seen in PFC, DG, and CA1 and downregulated expression of BDNF and GAP-43 was seen in PFC and DG and the CA1. Histomorphological study showed vast neurodegenerative changes in the hippocampus and PFC.

The results showed ,female rats that underwent PS or/and EMF exhibited critical anxiety-like behavior and this process may be attributed to neurodegeneration in PFC and DG of the hippocampus and possibly decreased synaptic plasticity so-called areas.