Influence of maternal stress on the development of the fetal genital system

Could neonatal testosterone replacement prevent alterations induced by prenatal stress in male rats?

“…When these stressed males rats were treated with testosterone at birth, there was recuperation in anogenital distance, showing that the reduction in anogenital distance was probably connected to an inadequate action or release of testosterone during this period. Data with different forms of gestational stress, including immobilization, noise or overcrowding (Dahlö f et al, 1978;Keshet and Weinstock, 1995;Williams et al, 1998) also showed that the anogenital distance in male neonates was reduced in this condition.…”

In Utero Prednisone Exposure Affects Genital Development

“…Interestingly, prenatal steroid exposure is known to increase the incidence of cleft palate approximately 30 times (although an increase in hypospadias was not reported). 7,[13][14][15] The incidence of cleft palate was not assessed in these experiments.…”

Prenatal Stress and Risk for Psychopathology: Specific Effects or Induction of General Susceptibility?

“…Many studies report lower birth weights of the pups following prenatal stress , though some studies used for instance immobilization stress throughout pregnancy and found no effect on birth weight (e.g., Rojo, Marin, & Menendez-Patterson, 1985) or found even an increase in birth weight after crowding stress in the last week of pregnancy (Dahlof et al, 1978). Early motor development appears to be sensitive to maternal stress as well.…”

“…Following randomly applied stress, pups exhibited an overall delay in motor development, whereas following daily stress in late pregnancy a somewhat accelerated motor development was observed. Thus, the same type of prenatal stress proved to either increase or delay the rate of maturation of early motor behavior of the offspring accord- Tightening of the thorax with a belt for 3 hr a day, with the back legs 100 mm above a table surface Alonso et al (1991) Crowding Rodents Placing 10 pregnant rats in standard living cage: 50 ϫ 30 ϫ 15 cm Dahlof et al (1978) Placing 5 pregnant rats in a 22 ϫ 38 ϫ 21 cm breeding cage Hayashi et al (1998) Repeated tail shocks Rodents Uncontrollable shock (0.5 mA, 5-s duration) to midportion of the tail; 80 trials delivered on a variable time 60-s schedule Takahashi, Haglin, & Kalin (1992) Restraint Rodents Individual placement in a plastic transparent cylinder (6 cm diameter, 20 cm long) for three 45-min periods per day Deminière et al (1992), Ward & Weisz (1984) Nonhuman primates Animals were hand captured at semirandom times of day, 5 days/ week, and held until the showed a disturbed behavioral response Worlein & Sackett (1995) Immobilization Rodents Strapping limbs down onto a special board with adhesive plaster, ventral side down Barlow et al (1978) Saline injections Rodents One saline (0.9%) injection (0.1 ml sc) daily Cratty et al (1995), Peters (1982) Noise Nonhuman primates In a small cage in a darkened room five times per week at 1600, three noise bursts over a 10-min period were administered randomly. Clarke et al (1994), Schneider (1992b) Noise consisted of an alarm horn producing 115 dB sound at 1 m, 1300 Hz Noise ϩ flashing lights Rodents Noise: electric bell, 90-95 dB; lights: 75-W incandescent bulbs, intensity of 20-ft candles Intermittent noise bursts and light flashes (rate: 2/s) for alternating 5-min periods; session lasted 4 hr Social stress Nonhuman primates Pregnant animals were removed from their breeding groups and rehoused in a new cage with unfamiliar pregnant females Schneider & Coe (1993) ing to the timing of its application.…”