title: Effects of prenatal stress and exercise on dentate granule cells maturation and spatial memory in adolescent mice.
abstract: Exposure to prenatal stress (PS) increases the risk of developing neurobehavioral disturbances later in life. Previous work has shown that exercise can exert beneficial effects on brain damage; however, it is unknown whether voluntary wheel running (VWR) can ameliorate the neurobehavioral impairments induced by PS in adolescent offspring. Pregnant CF-1 mice were randomly assigned to control (n=5) or stressed (n=5) groups. Pregnant dams were subjected to restraint stress between gestational days 14 and 21 (G14-21), whereas controls remained undisturbed in their home cages. On postnatal day 21 (P21), male pups were randomly assigned to the following experimental groups: control (n=5), stressed (n=5), and stressed mice+daily submitted to VWR (n=4). At P52, all groups were behaviorally evaluated in the Morris water maze. Animals were then sacrificed, and Golgi-impregnated granule cells were morphometrically analyzed. The results indicate that PS produced significant behavioral and neuronal impairments in adolescent offspring and that VWR significantly offset these deleterious effects.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Neurociencias, Escuela de Kinesiología, Facultad de Ciencias, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Chile. carlos.bustamante@ucv.cl
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bustamante
authors.forename: Pamela
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bilbao
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Contreras
authors.forename: Mauricio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Martínez
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mendoza
authors.forename: Alvaro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Reyes
authors.forename: Rodrigo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pascual
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003712:Dendrites / Q000502:physiology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D051379:Mice; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010805:Physical Conditioning, Animal; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; D011897:Random Allocation; D013312:Stress, Physiological