Search results for "prenatal stress"
showing 8 items of 8 documents
Effects of prenatal acute stress on the behavioural reactivity in handled and non-handled rat progeny
2003
The effects of prenatal stress are dependent on the intensity and duration of the stress treatment: chronic, uncontrollable stress causes an impairment in the normal adaptive responses to physical and physiological stimuli whereas acute and mild stress facilitates the morphological development of fetal brain neurons. The presents study was designed to investigate whether a single stress exposure during pregnancy may exert a facilitatory effect on the behaviour of the juvenile progeny. The effects of a postnatal handling procedure have been also investigated. One-month prenatally stressed rats (PSR) whose dams had been restrained for 120 minutes at the 16th day of gestation, showed an increa…
Impact of a single, intense prenatal stress on ethanol drinking behaviour and cognition in adult male rats
2015
Early exposure to stressful stimuli is crucial for developing varied behavioural patterns in adulthood such as anxiety, cognitive dysfunction and abuse disorders. The alteration of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis represents the neurobiological substrate responsible of the behavioural consequences of prenatal stress (PS). Indeed, prenatal manipulation of the HPA axis impacts on cognitive performance of the adult offspring, but also on vulnerability to alcohol consumption. Prenatal acute, moderate restraint stress has proved to facilitate HPA axis development of the offspring, since maternal corticosterone secretion leads to the reduction of anxiogenic behaviour and an improveme…
Single, intense prenatal stress decreases emotionality and enhances learning performance in the adolescent rat offspring: Interaction with a brief, d…
2006
Perinatal manipulations can lead to neurobehavioural changes in the progeny. In this study we investigated, in adolescent male rat offspring, the consequences of a single, intense prenatal stress induced by a 120 min-maternal immobilization at gestational day 16, and of a daily, brief maternal separation from postnatal day 2 until 21, on: unconditioned fear/anxiety-like behaviour in open field and in elevated plus-maze; learning performance in the "Can test", a non-aversive spatial and tactile/visual task; corticosterone plasma levels under basal and stress-induced conditions. Our results indicate that both prenatal stress and maternal separation procedures decrease emotionality and enhance…
Chernobyl exposure as stressor during pregnancy and hormone levels in adolescent offspring
2008
Background: Animal research suggests a programming effect of prenatal stress in the fetal period, resulting in disruptions in behavioural and neuromotor development. Physiological changes that mediate these effects include alterations in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and in testosterone levels. This human study focuses on changes related to these physiological systems after prenatal stress exposure. Methods: We examined the potential effect of prenatal stress associated with the Chernobyl disaster in an ongoing genetic epidemiological study in Finland. One birth cohort of twins (n = 121 twin pairs) was exposed in utero to maternal stress, and their saliva cortisol and testosterone…
The close link between the fetal programming imprinting and neurodegeneration in adulthood: The key role of “hemogenic endothelium” programming
2021
The research on neurodegenerative diseases (NeuroDegD) has been traditionally focused on later life stages. There is now an increasing evidence, that they may be programmed during early development. Here, we propose that NeuroDegD are the result of the complex process of imprinting on fetal hemogenic endothelium, from which the microglial cells make to origin. The central role of placenta and epigenetic mechanisms (methylation of DNA, histone modifications and regulation by non-coding RNAs) in mediating the short and long-term effects has been also described. Precisely, it reports their role in impacting plasticity and memory of microglial cells. In addition, we also underline the necessity…
Timing of Early Maternal Mental Health and Child Cortisol Regulation
2015
Maternal mental health problems can negatively impact children's physiological stress regulation. Yet, little is known of their long-term effects, especially related to the timing of maternal symptoms. We examined how maternal mental health problems during pregnancy versus in the early postpartum period predict children's cortisol levels and diurnal patterns at 10–12 years. Participants were a selection (N = 102) of an original sample of 805 Finnish families, who were followed from the second trimester of pregnancy (T1) to child's age of 2 months (T2) and 12 months (T3), and again at child's age of 10–12 years (T4). Based on the timing of psychological distress and depressive symptoms (T1–T…
Factores asociados al estrés prenatal y la ansiedad en gestantes durante el COVID-19 en España
2022
AIM OF THE STUDY To describe prenatal stress and state anxiety levels in pregnant women living in Spain during the lockdown of the first wave of COVID-19 and its relation with obstetric factors, perception of health care, and concerns about the socio-sanitary situation. METHODS The present study is an observational, correlational, and cross-sectional quantitative study. The participants in the study were pregnant women recruited through non-probabilistic convenience and snowball sampling during the lockdown. A web link was provided to an online questionnaire designed for this research, which collected socio-demographic and obstetric variables, perceptions of health care received during the …
Influences of prenatal and postnatal stress on adult hippocampal neurogenesis: The double neurogenic niche hypothesis
2015
International audience; Adult hippocampal neurogenesis (AHN) is involved in learning, memory, and stress, and plays a significant role in neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders. As an age-dependent process, AHN is largely influenced by changes that occur during the pre- and postnatal stages of brain development, and constitutes an important field of research. This review examines the current knowledge regarding the regulators of AHN and the influence of prenatal and postnatal stress on later AHN. In addition, a hypothesis is presented suggesting that each kind of stress influences a specific neurogenic pool, developmental or postnatal, that later becomes a precursor with important repe…