Prenatal stress enhances excitatory synaptic transmission and impairs long-term potentiation in the frontal cortex of adult offspring rats.
The effects of prenatal stress procedure were investigated in 3 months old male rats. Prenatally stressed rats showed depressive-like behavior in the forced swim test, including increased immobility, decreased mobility and decreased climbing. In ex vivo frontal cortex slices originating from prenatally stressed animals, the amplitude of extracellular field potentials (FPs) recorded in cortical layer II/III was larger, and the mean amplitude ratio of pharmacologically-isolated NMDA to the AMPA/kainate component of the field potential--smaller than in control preparations. Prenatal stress also resulted in a reduced magnitude of long-term potentiation (LTP). These effects were accompanied by an increase in the mean frequency, but not the mean amplitude, of spontaneous excitatory postsynaptic currents (sEPSCs) in layer II/III pyramidal neurons. These data demonstrate that stress during pregnancy may lead not only to behavioral disturbances, but also impairs the glutamatergic transmission and long-term synaptic plasticity in the frontal cortex of the adult offspring.
Department of Physiology, Institute of Pharmacology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakow, Poland.
Joanna
J
Sowa
Department of Physiology, Institute of Pharmacology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakow, Poland.
Bartosz
B
Bobula
Department of Experimental Neuroendocrinology, Institute of Pharmacology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakow, Poland.
Katarzyna
K
Glombik
Department of Experimental Neuroendocrinology, Institute of Pharmacology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakow, Poland.
Joanna
J
Slusarczyk
Department of Experimental Neuroendocrinology, Institute of Pharmacology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakow, Poland.
Agnieszka
A
Basta-Kaim
Department of Physiology, Institute of Pharmacology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakow, Poland; Institute of Zoology, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland.
Grzegorz
G
Hess
D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D017774:Long-Term Potentiation; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D017966:Pyramidal Cells / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley