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Effect of chronic intermittent stress on rat pregnancy and postnatal development
A Guo1, R E Nappi, M Criscuolo
1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Modena, Italy.
Insights
Chronic intermittent cold-swimming stress during early pregnancy in rats significantly reduced maternal weight gain and led to high neonate mortality and peripubertal offspring death. Prenatal stress negatively impacts postnatal development.
Area of Science:
- Reproductive Biology
- Developmental Biology
- Stress Physiology
Background:
- Prenatal stress is a significant factor influencing maternal physiology and offspring development.
- Understanding the specific impacts of different stress timings during gestation is crucial for predicting developmental outcomes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effects of chronic intermittent cold-swimming stress during specific periods of gestation on pregnant rats.
- To evaluate the impact of this prenatal stress on offspring development until the peripubertal stage.
Main Methods:
- Pregnant rats were subjected to chronic intermittent cold-swimming stress during either the first half (days 1-11) or the second half (days 12-term) of gestation.
- Maternal body weight gain was monitored throughout gestation.
- Offspring development, including mortality rates, litter size, body weight, and the incidence of small for date animals, was assessed postnatally until the peripubertal stage.
Main Results:
- Stress during the first half of gestation significantly reduced maternal weight gain but normalized later in pregnancy.
- Offspring from mothers stressed in early gestation exhibited high mortality rates at 1, 2, and 3 weeks postpartum.
- A significant proportion of offspring from all stressed groups were small for date, with a high mortality rate (74.4%) during the peripubertal period.
Conclusions:
- Prenatal exposure to chronic intermittent cold-swimming stress, particularly during early gestation, induces detrimental effects on offspring postnatal development.
- In utero stress can lead to increased neonatal mortality and a higher risk of peripubertal death in offspring.
- These findings highlight the vulnerability of fetal development to maternal stress and its long-term consequences.
Abstract:
The present study evaluates the effect of chronic intermittent cold-swimming stress on body weight gain of pregnant rats and subsequent development of the offsprings after birth, till peripubertal stage. When stress was administered during the first half (1-11 days) of gestation, weight gain of pregnant rats was significantly lower at the 9th and 11th days (P < 0.05 vs. control, respectively). No differences of weight gain in comparison with control rats were found at term gestation in pregnant rats exposed to stress continuously. Similarly, stress administered, starting from 12th day till term gestation, had no effect on weight gain. Even though weight gain of pregnant rats during the second half of pregnancy in group stress 1-11 was restored to normal values, a high mortality rate of neonates 1, 2 and 3 weeks after birth was found in this group (P < 0.02, 0.01 and 0.001 vs. controls). There was no significant difference between stressed and control groups with respect to the number or body weight of litters, as well as weight gain of neonates during the first 21 days of life. In addition, in offsprings from all stressed groups, a high number of small for date animals was found after 14 days of life, and 74.4% of these small for date animals died during the peripubertal period. The present data demonstrate that the exposure to stress in utero may induce damaging effects on postnatal development.