Estresse pré-natal e suas repercussões sobre o cuidado maternal e comportamento de ratos a curto e a longo prazo

AUTOR(ES)
FONTE

IBICT - Instituto Brasileiro de Informação em Ciência e Tecnologia

DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2012

RESUMO

In humans and rodents, stress during pregnancy has produced offspring with high levels of anxiety, impaired learning and memory, changes in maternal care and social behavior deficits. Most prenatal stress protocols have attributed their results to the vulnerability of the intrauterine period. However, studies show that the consequences caused by this action arise from an indirect effect on maternal behavior. In this context, the objective of this study was to analyze the impact of restraint stress applied during the last week of pregnancy on: (1) maternal care; (2) nest odor preference behavior and NA content in the olfactory bulb (OB) of rat pups, and, finally, (3) on the social behaviors and number of neurons positive for oxytocin (OT) and vasopressin (VP) in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) and supraoptic nucleus (SON) of adult rats. Thus, based on the results obtained, two studies were produced. The first study, titled ¿Prenatal stress produces sex differences in nest odor preference¿, found that prenatal stress reduced maternal behavior and extinguished nest odor preference in male and female pups when both events, prenatal stress and reduced maternal care, were combined. In this test, female pups were more found to be more vulnerable to perinatal interventions compared to male pups. On the other hand, no changes were observed in the noradrenergic OB in these animals. The results of the second study, titled ¿Prenatal stress produces social behavior deficits and alters the number of oxytocin and vasopressin neurons in adult rats¿, found that the combination of prenatal stress applied to mothers and also to their offspring, resulted in deficits linked to anxiety, aggression and social behaviors. Furthermore, in these animals, the number of vasopressinergic and ocytocinergic cells in the PVN was seen to be altered. However, the behavioral deficits were more related to malfunctions in the vasopressinergic system than in the ocytocinergic system.

ASSUNTO(S)

estresse pre-natal comportamento materno comportamento social ocitocina vasopressinas

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