Transgenerational programming of maternal behaviour by prenatal stress

Abstract

Peripartum events hold the potential to have dramatic effects in the programming of physiology and behaviour of offspring and possibly subsequent generations. Here we have characterized transgenerational changes in rat maternal behaviour as a function of gestational and prenatal stress. Pregnant dams of the parental generation were exposed to stress from days 12-18 (F0-S). Their daughters and grand-daughters were either stressed (F1-SS, F2-SSS) or non-stressed (F1-SN, F2-SNN). Maternal antepartum behaviours were analyzed at a time when pregnant dams usually show a high frequency of tail chasing behaviours. F1-SS, F2-SNN and F2-SSS groups showed a significant reduction in tail chasing behaviours when compared with controls. The effects of multigenerational stress (SSS) slightly exceeded those of transgenerational stress (SNN) and resulted in absence of tail chasing behaviour. These findings suggest that antepartum maternal behaviour in rats is programmed by transgenerational inheritance of stress responses. Thus, altered antepartum maternal behaviour may serve as an indicator of an activated stress response during gestation.

Prenatal Stress Alters Hippocampal Neuroglia and Increases Anxiety in Childhood

“…This effect has even been shown transgenerationally, with prenatal stress being associated with altered maternal care in subsequent generations [54]. However, whilst guinea pig pups demonstrate strong attachments to their mothers [27], maternal care itself is very passive in nature, limited primarily to active licking of the pups over the first postnatal week [55].…”

Multigenerational prenatal stress increases the coherence of brain signaling among cortico–striatal–limbic circuits in adult rats

“…Furthermore, the exposure of pregnant dams to stress can affect their capacity for maternal care, which may additionally contribute to the altered development of PNS rats . Finally, the effects of stress can be accumulated across generations through epigenetic mechanisms (Hunter and McEwen, 2013;Ward et al, 2013).…”

Environmental Intervention as a Therapy for Adverse Programming by Ancestral Stress

“…To determine the impact of EE on transgenerational versus cumulative ancestral stress, the design used (1) a lineage of transgenerational prenatal stress in which the parental generation but not the F1-F3 generations experienced stress, and (2) a lineage of multigenerational prenatal stress, in which each the parental and the offspring generations experienced gestational stress682425. The F3 generation is of particular relevance because it is the first generation in the maternal lineage that is not directly exposed to prenatal stress and therefore changes may be considered programmed through epigenetic inheritance26.…”