title: Sexual differences in long-term effects of prenatal chronic mild stress on anxiety-like behavior and stress-induced regional glutamate receptor expression in rat offspring.
abstract: Severe adverse life events during pregnancy may increase the risk of anxiety disorders in the offspring. Glutamate receptors are neurobiological targets in anxiety disorders. In this study, we investigated the effects of prenatal chronic mild stress (PCMS) on anxiety-like behavior by using elevated plus maze (EPM), and evaluated the effects of PCMS and/or anxiogenic challenge on glutamate receptors in different brain regions. Our results showed that PCMS increased anxiety-like behavior in both male and female offspring. Moreover, compared with the male naïve rats, male EPM rats showed a significant reduction of mGluR2/3 in the prefrontal cortex, mGluR1 and mGluR2/3 in the hippocampus, and increments of mGluR5, NR1, NR2B and PSD95 in the amygdala. In contrast, compared with female naïve rats, female EPM rats showed decreased levels of mGluR5 in the hippocampus, and mGluR2/3 and mGluR5 in the prefrontal cortex, and increased levels of NR2B and PSD95 in the amygdala. Furthermore, PCMS seemed not to affect the baseline expression of glutamate receptors in adult offspring, but induced significant alterations of them triggered by anxiogenic challenge with a sex difference. These data strengthen the pathophysiological hypothesis that prenatal stress as a risk factor involves in the development of anxiety disorder in the offspring.
authors: College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Applied psychology, China Medical University, Shenyang 110001, China.
authors: Yan
authors: Y
authors: Wang
authors: College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Applied psychology, China Medical University, Shenyang 110001, China.
authors: Yuchao
authors: Y
authors: Ma
authors: College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Applied psychology, China Medical University, Shenyang 110001, China.
authors: Wenwen
authors: W
authors: Cheng
authors: Department of Psychiatry, The First Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang 110001, China.
authors: Han
authors: H
authors: Jiang
authors: The Research Center for Medical Genomics, Key Laboratory of Cell Biology, Ministry of Public Health, Key Laboratory of Medical Cell Biology, Ministry of Education, China Medical University, Shenyang 110001, China.
authors: Xinxin
authors: X
authors: Zhang
authors: College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Applied psychology, China Medical University, Shenyang 110001, China.
authors: Min
authors: M
authors: Li
authors: College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Applied psychology, China Medical University, Shenyang 110001, China.
authors: Jintao
authors: J
authors: Ren
authors: College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Applied psychology, China Medical University, Shenyang 110001, China.
authors: Xiaosong
authors: X
authors: Zhang
authors: Department of Psychiatry, The First Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang 110001, China. Electronic address: xbli@mail.cmu.edu.cn.
authors: Xiaobai
authors: X
authors: Li
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*; D000076122:Disks Large Homolog 4 Protein; D005260:Female; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental / Q000502:physiology*; D047908:Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D017470:Receptors, Glutamate / Q000378:metabolism*; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000503:physiopathology*
chemical_list: D000076122:Disks Large Homolog 4 Protein; C501449:Dlg4 protein, rat; D047908:Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; D008565:Membrane Proteins; D017470:Receptors, Glutamate
keywords: Amygdala; Glutamate receptor; Hippocampus; Prefrontal cortex; Prenatal chronic mild stress; Sexual difference