Transgenerational programming of maternal behaviour by prenatal stress
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Date
2013
Authors
Ward, Isaac D.
Zucchi, Fabiola C.R.
Robbins, Jerrah C.
Falkenberg, Erin A.
Olson, David M.
Benzies, Karen
Metz, Gerlinde A. S.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
BioMed Central
Abstract
Peripartum events hold the potential to have dramatic effects in the programming of physiology and behaviour of
offspring and possibly subsequent generations. Here we have characterized transgenerational changes in rat
maternal behaviour as a function of gestational and prenatal stress. Pregnant dams of the parental generation
were exposed to stress from days 12-18 (F0-S). Their daughters and grand-daughters were either stressed (F1-SS,
F2-SSS) or non-stressed (F1-SN, F2-SNN). Maternal antepartum behaviours were analyzed at a time when pregnant
dams usually show a high frequency of tail chasing behaviours. F1-SS, F2-SNN and F2-SSS groups showed a
significant reduction in tail chasing behaviours when compared with controls. The effects of multigenerational
stress (SSS) slightly exceeded those of transgenerational stress (SNN) and resulted in absence of tail chasing
behaviour. These findings suggest that antepartum maternal behaviour in rats is programmed by transgenerational
inheritance of stress responses. Thus, altered antepartum maternal behaviour may serve as an indicator of an
activated stress response during gestation.
Description
Sherpa Romeo green journal. Open access, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) License
Keywords
Prenatal stress , Maternal behaviour , Multigenerational stress , Transgenerational stress , Tail chasing behaviour , Rats , Stress response , Gestation
Citation
Ward, I.D., Zucchi, F.C.R., Robbins, J.C., Falkenberg, E.A., Olson, D.M., Benzies, K., & Metz, G.A. (2013). Transgenerational programming of maternal behaviour by prenatal stress. BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth, 13(Suppl 1), 59. doi:10.1186/1471-2393--13-S1-S9