title: Glutamate neurotransmission is affected in prenatally stressed offspring.
abstract: Previous studies from our laboratory have shown that male adult offspring of stressed mothers exhibited higher levels of ionotropic and metabotropic glutamate receptors than control rats. These offspring also showed long-lasting astroglial hypertrophy and a reduced dendritic arborization with synaptic loss. Since metabolism of glutamate is dependent on interactions between neurons and surrounding astroglia, our results suggest that glutamate neurotransmitter pathways might be impaired in the brain of prenatally stressed rats. To study the effect of prenatal stress on the metabolism and neurotransmitter function of glutamate, pregnant rats were subjected to restrain stress during the last week of gestation. Brains of the adult offspring were used to assess glutamate metabolism, uptake and release as well as expression of glutamate receptors and transporters. While glutamate metabolism was not affected it was found that prenatal stress (PS) changed the expression of the transporters, thus, producing a higher level of vesicular vGluT-1 in the frontal cortex (FCx) and elevated levels of GLT1 protein and messenger RNA in the hippocampus (HPC) of adult male PS offspring. We also observed increased uptake capacity for glutamate in the FCx of PS male offspring while no such changes were observed in the HPC. The results show that changes mediated by PS on the adult glutamatergic system are brain region specific. Overall, PS produces long-term changes in the glutamatergic system modulating the expression of glutamate transporters and altering synaptic transmission of the adult brain.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Química y Fisicoquímica Biológicas (UBA-CONICET), Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Ezequiela
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Adrover
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Química y Fisicoquímica Biológicas (UBA-CONICET), Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Maria Eugenia
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Pallarés
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Química y Fisicoquímica Biológicas (UBA-CONICET), Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Carlos Javier
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Baier
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas - Instituto Tecnológico de Chascomus (IIB-INTECH), Universidad Nacional de General San Martín - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (UNSAM-CONICET), Av. 25 de Mayo y Francia CP (1650) San Martín, Prov. de Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Melisa C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Monteleone
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas (INBIOMED-IMBECU-CONICET), Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad de Mendoza, Mendoza, Argentina.
authors.forename: Fernando A
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Giuliani
authors.affiliation: Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Helle S
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Waagepetersen
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas - Instituto Tecnológico de Chascomus (IIB-INTECH), Universidad Nacional de General San Martín - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (UNSAM-CONICET), Av. 25 de Mayo y Francia CP (1650) San Martín, Prov. de Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Marcela A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Brocco
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas (INBIOMED-IMBECU-CONICET), Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad de Mendoza, Mendoza, Argentina.
authors.forename: Ricardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cabrera
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), N-7489 Trondheim, Norway.
authors.forename: Ursula
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Sonnewald
authors.affiliation: Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Arne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schousboe
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Química y Fisicoquímica Biológicas (UBA-CONICET), Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Electronic address: mca@fmed.uba.ar.
authors.forename: Marta C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Antonelli
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D018698:Glutamic Acid / Q000378:metabolism*; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D009924:Organ Culture Techniques; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects / Q000209:etiology / Q000378:metabolism*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications / Q000378:metabolism*; D009435:Synaptic Transmission / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D018698:Glutamic Acid
keywords: AMPA receptor; Frontal cortex; Glutamate release; Glutamate transporters; Hippocampus; NMDA receptor