Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Aug 17:12:176.
doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00176. eCollection 2018.

Early Postnatal Stress Impairs Cognitive Functions of Male Rats Persisting Until Adulthood

Anna Holubová  1 , Ivana Lukášková  1 , Nikol Tomášová  1 , Mária Šuhajdová  1 , Romana Šlamberová  1
Affiliations

Early Postnatal Stress Impairs Cognitive Functions of Male Rats Persisting Until Adulthood

Anna Holubová et al. Front Behav Neurosci. .

Abstract

Methamphetamine (MA) is the most abused "hard" illicit drug in the Czech Republic. Drugs abused during pregnancy are not hazardous merely to the mother, but also to developing fetuses. The offspring of drug-addicted mothers are also often exposed to perinatal stressors that may impair brain development of affected progeny. The present study examines the effect of perinatal stressors and drug exposure on cognitive function in male progeny. In the present study, rat mothers were divided into three groups according to drug treatment during pregnancy: controls (C); saline (SA, s.c., 1 ml/kg); MA (s.c., 5 mg/ml/kg). Litters were divided into two groups according to postnatal stressors: non-stressed controls (N); Maternal separation (MS). For evaluation of learning and memory, adult male progeny were tested in the Morris Water Maze (MWM). Our results revealed no significant effects caused by prenatal drug or prenatal stress exposure. On the other hand, chronic postnatal stress, mediated by MS, significantly impaired learning on the Place Navigation test. In addition, MS was associated with changes in search strategies on the Place Navigation, Probe, and Memory Recall tests. Specifically, postnatal stress increased thigmotaxis, indicating less awareness of the hidden platform. In conclusion, the present study provides evidence that exposure to early postnatal stress significantly impairs cognitive functions of male rats, which persists into adulthood.

Keywords: learning; maternal separation; memory; methamphetamine; postnatal stress; prenatal stress.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The effect of Maternal separation (MS) on the Place Navigation test. (A) Search error, (B) Latency, (C) Distance, (D) Thigmotaxis, (E) Scanning. Values are means ± SEM. **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001. Significant differences were seen between groups stressed by MS and controls, regardless of prenatal treatment.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The effect of MS on the Probe test. (A) Thigmotaxis, (B) Scanning. Values are means ± SEM. ***p < 0.001. A significant difference was seen between groups stressed by MS and controls, regardless of prenatal treatment.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The effect of MS on the Memory Recall test. (A) Thigmotaxis, (B) Scanning. Values are means ± SEM. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01. Significant differences were seen between groups stressed by MS and controls, regardless of prenatal treatment.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Acuff-Smith K. D., Schilling M. A., Fisher J. E., Vorhees C. V. (1996). Stage-specific effects of prenatal d-methamphetamine exposure on behavioral and eye development in rats. Neurotoxicol. Teratol. 18, 199–215. 10.1016/0892-0362(95)02015-2 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Aisa B., Elizalde N., Tordera R., Lasheras B., Del Rio J., Ramirez M. J. (2009). Effects of neonatal stress on markers of synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus: implications for spatial memory. Hippocampus 19, 1222–1231. 10.1002/hipo.20586 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Aisa B., Tordera R., Lasheras B., Del Rio J., Ramirez M. J. (2007). Cognitive impairment associated to HPA axis hyperactivity after maternal separation in rats. Psychoneuroendocrinology 32, 256–266. 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2006.12.013 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Altman J., Bayer S. A. (1990). Migration and distribution of two populations of hippocampal granule cell precursors during the perinatal and postnatal periods. J. Comp. Neurol. 301, 365–381. 10.1002/cne.903010304 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Anacker C., Cattaneo A., Luoni A., Musaelyan K., Zunszain P. A., Milanesi E., et al. . (2013). Glucocorticoid-related molecular signaling pathways regulating hippocampal neurogenesis. Neuropsychopharmacology 38, 872–883. 10.1038/npp.2012.253 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources

  NODES
admin 1
twitter 2