title: Effect of emotional stress experienced by female rats before pregnancy on brain development in their offspring.
abstract: Twenty-one- and 40-day-old offspring from female rats exposed to emotional stress for 3 weeks and mated with intact males 10 days later were examined. Intact female offspring served as the control. The weight of the brain of 21- and 40-day-old experimental rats varied is a wider range compared to the control. In 40-day-old experimental males, the mean weights of the brain and hemisphere were lower than in controls. In 21-day-old rats, layer V neuronal nuclei were enlarged, while the thickness of the parietal cortex tended to decrease. In 40-day-old animals, morphometric parameters of neurons in the neocortex and hippocampus and RNA concentration in their cytoplasm did not differ from the control. Thirty-day-old experimental rats demonstrated low exploratory activity in the plus-maze test.
authors.affiliation: Department of Histology, Far Eastern State Medical University, Vladivostok.
authors.forename: B Ya
authors.initials: BY
authors.lastname: Ryzhavskii
authors.forename: T V
authors.initials: TV
authors.lastname: Sokolova
authors.forename: R V
authors.initials: RV
authors.lastname: Uchakina
authors.forename: Yu I
authors.initials: YI
authors.lastname: Fel'dsherov
authors.forename: Yu A
authors.initials: YA
authors.lastname: Sapozhnikov
authors.forename: E V
authors.initials: EV
authors.lastname: Vasil'eva
authors.forename: I R
authors.initials: IR
authors.lastname: Eremenko
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000254:growth & development*; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D012739:Gonadal Steroid Hormones / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D009929:Organ Size; D011247:Pregnancy; D051381:Rats; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000503:physiopathology*
chemical_list: D012739:Gonadal Steroid Hormones