Perinatal Psychoneuroimmunology of Prenatal Stress and Its Effects on Fetal and Postnatal Brain Development

Martin G Frasch1, Colin Wakefield2, Ben Janoschek2

  • 1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Institute on Human Development and Disability, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA. mfrasch@uw.edu.

Prenatal stress (PS) impacts early behavioral, neuroimmune, and cognitive development. Pregnant rat models have been very valuable in examining the mechanisms of such fetal programming. A pregnant sheep model of maternal stress offers the unique advantages of chronic in utero monitoring and manipulation. This chapter presents the techniques used to model single and multigenerational stress exposures and their pleiotropic effects on the offspring.

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