PMID- 20079763
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20100525
LR  - 20100302
IS  - 1872-7549 (Electronic)
IS  - 0166-4328 (Linking)
VI  - 208
IP  - 2
DP  - 2010 Apr 2
TI  - Maternal care counteracts behavioral effects of prenatal environmental stress in 
      female rats.
PG  - 593-602
LID - 10.1016/j.bbr.2010.01.003 [doi]
AB  - There is extensive evidence in rats that prenatal environmental stress (PES) 
      exposure and early postnatal altered maternal care, as a consequence of stress 
      during gestation, can detrimentally affect the brain and behavioral development 
      of the offspring. In order to separate the effect of PES on the fetuses from that 
      on the behavior of the mother, in the present study, we used a cross-fostering 
      procedure in which PES-fetuses were raised by non-stressed mothers and non 
      PES-fetuses were raised by stressed mothers. In Experiment 1, non-stressed 
      mothers showed significantly more maternal behavior than stressed mothers. In 
      Experiment 2, when the female offspring from Experiment 1 reached maturity, they 
      were tested for: (1) induced maternal behavior (MB), (2) plasma levels of 
      corticosterone (Cpd B), progesterone (P), and estradiol (E(2)), (3) number of 
      accessory olfactory bulb (AOB) mitral cells, and (4) c-fos expression measured in 
      AOB and medial preoptic area (MPOA) neurons. We replicated our previous findings 
      that the PES group reared by their own stressed mothers, when adult, attacked the 
      young, expressed disorganized MB and showed altered Cpd B, P and E(2) levels, 
      plus a male-like neuro-morphological pattern in the AOB, by comparison with the 
      non-PES group, reared by their own non-stressed mothers. By contrast, when adult, 
      the PES group reared by non-stressed mothers showed hormonal and morphological 
      neuronal alterations, but they displayed appropriate (full) MB. The non-PES group 
      raised by stressed mothers also showed altered hormone levels, but showed full MB 
      and no morphological neuronal changes. Significant differences in the AOB and 
      MPOA c-fos activity, related to whether or not MB was expressed, were found in 
      the non-PES groups, but not in the PES group reared by non-stressed mothers. To 
      our knowledge, this is the first study to document that adequate maternal care, 
      early in development, can shape the subsequent expression of induced MB, 
      overcoming neuro-morphological and hormonal alterations that are produced by 
      prenatal environmental stress. We conclude that maternal care during early 
      postnatal development can counteract detrimental effects of prenatal 
      environmental stress, exerting long-lasting effects that modulate the behavioral 
      phenotype of the offspring.
CI  - Copyright 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
FAU - Del Cerro, M C R
AU  - Del Cerro MC
AD  - Departamento de Psicobiologia, Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia, 
      Madrid, Spain. mcrdelcerro@psi.uned.es
FAU - Perez-Laso, C
AU  - Perez-Laso C
FAU - Ortega, E
AU  - Ortega E
FAU - Martin, J L R
AU  - Martin JL
FAU - Gomez, F
AU  - Gomez F
FAU - Perez-Izquierdo, M A
AU  - Perez-Izquierdo MA
FAU - Segovia, S
AU  - Segovia S
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
DEP - 20100115
PL  - Netherlands
TA  - Behav Brain Res
JT  - Behavioural brain research
JID - 8004872
RN  - 0 (Hormones)
RN  - 0 (Oncogene Proteins v-fos)
SB  - IM
MH  - Animals
MH  - Animals, Newborn
MH  - Female
MH  - Hormones/blood
MH  - Maternal Behavior/*physiology
MH  - Neurons/metabolism
MH  - Olfactory Bulb/pathology
MH  - Oncogene Proteins v-fos/metabolism
MH  - Pregnancy
MH  - Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects/*etiology/pathology
MH  - Radioimmunoassay/methods
MH  - Rats
MH  - Rats, Wistar
MH  - Stress, Psychological/*complications
EDAT- 2010/01/19 06:00
MHDA- 2010/05/26 06:00
CRDT- 2010/01/19 06:00
PHST- 2009/07/23 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2010/01/04 00:00 [revised]
PHST- 2010/01/06 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2010/01/19 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2010/01/19 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2010/05/26 06:00 [medline]
AID - S0166-4328(10)00020-3 [pii]
AID - 10.1016/j.bbr.2010.01.003 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Behav Brain Res. 2010 Apr 2;208(2):593-602. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2010.01.003. Epub 
      2010 Jan 15.