Maternal stress alters monoamine metabolites in fetal and neonatal rat brain.
Heat-restraint stress given rats during the last week of gestation significantly altered dopaminergic dihydroxyphenylacetic acid and homovanillic acid (DOPAC and HVA) and noradrenergic 3-methoxy-4-hydroxy-phenyl-ethylene glycol (MOPEG) forebrain-hypothalamic monoamine (MA) metabolites in female offspring. On gestational day 21, HVA and MOPEG were significantly higher and lower, and on postnatal day 1 all were higher. There were virtually no differences in brain MA concentrations in males. Thus MA metabolic concentrations differ in fetal-neonatal forebrain-hypothalamus as a function of sex differences and maternal stress.
Herrenkohl
L R
LR
Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122.
Ribary
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Schlumpf
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Lichtensteiger
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D015102:3,4-Dihydroxyphenylacetic Acid / Q000378:metabolism; D000588:Amines / Q000378:metabolism*; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn / Q000378:metabolism*; D001921:Brain / Q000196:embryology / Q000378:metabolism*; D004027:Diencephalon / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D005333:Fetus / Q000378:metabolism*; D005865:Gestational Age; D006719:Homovanillic Acid / Q000378:metabolism; D007031:Hypothalamus / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D008734:Methoxyhydroxyphenylglycol / Q000378:metabolism; D011247:Pregnancy; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000378:metabolism*; D013687:Telencephalon / Q000378:metabolism
D000588:Amines; D015102:3,4-Dihydroxyphenylacetic Acid; D008734:Methoxyhydroxyphenylglycol; D006719:Homovanillic Acid