title: Prenatal stress causes gender-dependent neuronal loss and oxidative stress in rat hippocampus.
abstract: Our purpose was to investigate the effects of prenatal stress on neuronal changes in the hippocampus and the possible involvement of oxidative stress in female and male rats. Female and male offspring (1-month-old), whose dams were restrained in middle or later pregnant stage (MS or LS), were studied to observe changes in the number of hippocampal neurons and the expression of neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) in the hippocampus. Both MS and LS induced an increase in the number of nNOS-positive expression in female and male offspring in the hippocampus; however, both MS and LS caused a significant decrease in the number of hippocampal neurons in the female, but not in the male offspring. In addition, significant increases in calcium content and oxidant generation were induced by LS in the hippocampal CA3 region in female rats. These data suggest that prenatal stress can cause oxidative stress and consequent damage to neurons, leading to neuronal loss in the brain of offspring during development.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Xi'an Jiaotong University Medical College, Xi'an, China. zlzhu@mail.xjtu.edu.cn
authors.forename: Zhongliang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Xia
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Weina
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Cai
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Qing
authors.forename: Ning
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.forename: Zhuanli
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.forename: Jiankang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002452:Cell Count; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000166:cytology / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology / Q000473:pathology / Q000502:physiology*; D019001:Nitric Oxide Synthase / Q000378:metabolism; D052248:Nitric Oxide Synthase Type I; D018384:Oxidative Stress / Q000502:physiology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; D051381:Rats; D012727:Sex Characteristics
chemical_list: D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D019001:Nitric Oxide Synthase; D052248:Nitric Oxide Synthase Type I; C496322:Nos1 protein, rat