主催: 第94回日本薬理学会年会
会議名: 第94回日本薬理学会年会
回次: 94
開催地: Sapporo
開催日: 2021/03/08 - 2021/03/10
It has been shown that adverse events during pregnancy have a negative impact on brain development and may increase the risk for neuropsychiatric disorders in later life in human. In this study, we explored the long-lasting influences of psychosocial stress during pregnancy in adult offspring of mice using a communication box method.
Pregnant C57BL/6J mice were exposed to a psychosocial stress by communication box daily from the gestational day 12 (G12) until delivery. We observed the behaviors of offspring at 7 weeks old in the social interaction and elevated plus-maze tests, and measured plasma corticosterone levels, GABAergic neuronal changes in the amygdala.
We found anxiety-like behaviors and reduction of social interaction in offspring received prenatal stress. Those mice had decrease in parvalbumin-positive cells in the amygdala and a hyperactivity of stress-induced corticosterone release compared to control group. In addition, these anxiety-like behaviors in the both tests were blocked by intra-amygdala injection of diazepam.
These results suggest that this prenatal psychosocial stress may lead to GABAergic hypofunction in the amygdala accompanied with anxiety-like behaviors of offspring.
