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Female early adult depression results in detrimental impacts on the behavioral performance and brain development in offspring.

ABSTRACT: AIMS:The present study was to understand whether early adult depressive females implicated their offspring. METHODS:Seven-week-old female mice were subject to chronic mild stress (CMS) to establish the animal model of depression. The behavioral performance of their offspring were tested via neonatal reflexes tests, hole-board test, and morris water maze test in different ages. Astrocyte number, hippocampal volume, and neurogenesis were analyzed via immunohistochemical blotting. Glucocorticoid receptor (GR) expression and serum cortisol levels were measured by western blotting and ELISA. RESULTS:Female depressive mice had normal fertility, but their offspring had lowered neonatal survival rate and body weight from neonatal period to early adulthood. The offspring of female depressive mice exhibited the impairments of neonatal reflex attainment and memory, but had higher emotionality as adults. Furthermore, the astrocyte number, hippocampal volume, and neurogenesis were reduced in the offspring. However, the expressions of GR were increased in the hippocampus of offspring. CONCLUSION:This study reveals that female early adult depressive mice have normal reproductive ability, but make long-term detrimental impacts on the behavioral performance and brain development of their offspring.

SUBMITTER: Gong Y

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6493584 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Female early adult depression results in detrimental impacts on the behavioral performance and brain development in offspring.

Gong Yu Y Sun Xiu-Lan XL Wu Fang-Fang FF Su Chun-Jin CJ Ding Jian-Hua JH Hu Gang G

CNS neuroscience & therapeutics 20120601 6

<h4>Aims</h4>The present study was to understand whether early adult depressive females implicated their offspring.<h4>Methods</h4>Seven-week-old female mice were subject to chronic mild stress (CMS) to establish the animal model of depression. The behavioral performance of their offspring were tested via neonatal reflexes tests, hole-board test, and morris water maze test in different ages. Astrocyte number, hippocampal volume, and neurogenesis were analyzed via immunohistochemical blotting. Gl ...[more]

PMID: 22672298

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Project description:Postnatal depression (PND) is known to be associated with a range of detrimental child and adolescent outcomes, resulting from its disruptive impact on mother-child relationship quality. However, until now little has been known about the impact of PND on the longer-term relationships between mothers and their children, and any intergenerational effects this may have. Mother-child relationship quality is of interest from an evolutionary perspective as it plays a role in the accrual of offspring embodied capital, thus affecting offspring quality and offspring's capacity to subsequently invest in their own children. Relationships with offspring also mediate grandparent-grandchild relations; if PND negatively affects long-term mother-offspring relationship quality, it is also likely to negatively affect grandmaternal investment via reduced grandmother-grandchild relationship quality. Here, we use responses to a retrospective questionnaire study of postmenopausal women, largely from the UK and US, to assess the impact of PND occurring in generation 1 on mother-child relationship quality across the life course of the child (generation 2) with whom it was associated, and also on the relationship quality with grandchildren (generation 3) from that child. Average mother-child relationship quality was lower when the child's birth was associated with PND. Multi-level regression modelling found that mother-child relationship quality decreased as PND symptom severity increased after controlling for individual effects and a variety of other factors known to influence relationship quality (individual mothers n = 296, mother-child dyads n = 646). Additionally, intergenerational relationships appear to be affected, with PND negatively associated with grandmother-grandchild relations (individual grandmothers n = 125, relations with grandchildren from n = 197 grandmother-parent dyads). That PND has long-term detrimental consequences for mother-child relationships, well beyond adolescence, highlights the need for investment in strategies to prevent PND and its cascade of negative multigenerational effects.

Project description:According to the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) hypothesis, exposure to environmental stressors during early development can cause genetic, epigenetic, or functional changes in tissues that increase disease risk later in life. Atrazine (ATZ) is a commonly used pesticide that frequently contaminates rural and urban water sources at levels above the 3 ppb maximum contaminant level set by the US Environmental Protection Agency. Exposure to ATZ is linked to endocrine disruption, cancer, changes in genome methylation, and alterations in neurochemistry and behavior. This study tests the hypothesis that embryonic exposure to ATZ results in sex-specific changes in behavior, the adult brain transcriptome, and adult body and brain pathology, according to the DOHaD hypothesis. Zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryos were exposed to 0, 0.3, 3, or 30 ppb (ppb; µg/L) ATZ during the period from fertilization through 72 hours post fertilization (hpf), and then were rinsed and raised to maturity with no further exposure. At 9 months post fertilization (mpf), a novel tank test, a light-dark box, and an open field test evaluated adult behavior. Transcriptomic analysis investigated ATZ related differences in gene expression and the brain was evaluated histopathologically for morphometric alterations in the area of the dorsal telencephalon, posterior tuberculum, and raphe populations. At 14 mpf, the body length, weight, and brain weight was measured to evaluate effects of ATZ on mature body and brain size. The 9 mpf adult behavioral tests found non-monotonic, sex-specific behavior changes, with male zebrafish having decreased activity and female zebrafish having increased signs of anxiety. Transcriptomic analysis identified sex-specific alterations, with females having altered expression of genes in pathways related to cancer and organismal injury and males having altered gene expression in organismal development and reproductive system development and function pathways. Morphometric analysis identified a decreased number of cells in male raphe populations and adult zebrafish also had non-monotonic, sex-specific alterations in body length, body weight, and brain weight. This results suggests that developmental exposure to ATZ does cause sex-specific alterations in adult neural function.

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Female early adult depression results in detrimental impacts on the behavioral performance and brain development in offspring.

Publications

Female early adult depression results in detrimental impacts on the behavioral performance and brain development in offspring.

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