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Hassanshahi A, Janahmadi M, Razavinasab M, Ranjbar H, Hosseinmardi N, Behzadi G, Kohlmeier KA, Ilaghi M, Shabani M. Preventive putative effect of agmatine on cognitive and molecular outcomes in ventral tegmental area of male offspring following physical and psychological prenatal stress. Dev Psychobiol 2023; 65:e22410. [PMID: 37607891 DOI: 10.1002/dev.22410] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2022] [Revised: 06/06/2023] [Accepted: 06/20/2023] [Indexed: 08/24/2023]
Abstract
Prenatal stress (PS) results from a maternal experience of stressful events during pregnancy, which has been associated with an increased risk of behavioral disorders including substance abuse and anxiety in the offspring. PS is known to result in heightened dopamine release in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), in part through the effects of corticotropin-releasing hormone, which directly excites dopaminergic cells. It has recently been suggested that agmatine plays a role in modulating anxiety-like behaviors. In this study, we investigated whether agmatine could reduce negative cognitive outcomes in male mice prenatally exposed to psychological/physical stress, and whether this could be associated with molecular changes in VTA. Agmatine (37.5 mg/kg) was administrated 30 min prior to PS induction in pregnant Swiss mice. Male offspring were evaluated in a series of behavioral and molecular assays. Findings demonstrated that agmatine reduced the impairment in locomotor activity induced by both psychological and physical PS. Agmatine also decreased heightened conditioned place preference to morphine seen in PS offspring. Moreover, agmatine ameliorated the anxiety-like behavior and drug-seeking behavior induced by PS in the male offspring. Molecular effects were seen in VTA as the enhanced brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) induced by PS in the VTA was reduced by agmatine. Behavioral tests indicate that agmatine exerts a protective effect on PS-induced impairments in male offspring, which could be due in part to agmatine-associated molecular alterations in the VTA. Taken together, our data suggest that prenatal treatment with agmatine exerts protective effect against negative consequences of PS on the development of affective circuits in the offspring.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amin Hassanshahi
- Neuroscience Research Center, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Mahyar Janahmadi
- Neuroscience Research Center, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Moazamehosadat Razavinasab
- Neuroscience Research Center, Neuropharmacology Institute, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
| | - Hoda Ranjbar
- Neuroscience Research Center, Neuropharmacology Institute, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
| | - Narges Hosseinmardi
- Neuroscience Research Center, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Gila Behzadi
- Neuroscience Research Center, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Kristi A Kohlmeier
- Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Mehran Ilaghi
- Neuroscience Research Center, Neuropharmacology Institute, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
| | - Mohammad Shabani
- Neuroscience Research Center, Neuropharmacology Institute, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
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Shabani M, Ilaghi M, Naderi R, Razavinasab M. The hyperexcitability of laterodorsal tegmentum cholinergic neurons accompanies adverse behavioral and cognitive outcomes of prenatal stress. Sci Rep 2023; 13:6011. [PMID: 37045899 PMCID: PMC10097720 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-33016-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2022] [Accepted: 04/05/2023] [Indexed: 04/14/2023] Open
Abstract
Exposure to prenatal stress (PS) leads to the offspring's vulnerability towards the development of cognitive and behavioral disorders. Laterodorsal tegmentum (LDT) is a part of the brainstem cholinergic system that is believed to play a pivotal role in the stress-associated progression of anxiety, memory impairment, and addictive behaviors. In this study, we aimed to investigate the electrophysiological alterations of LDT cholinergic neurons and its accompanied behavioral and cognitive outcomes in the offspring of mice exposed to physical or psychological PS. Swiss Webster mice were exposed to physical or psychological stress on the tenth day of gestation. Ex vivo investigations in LDT brain slices of adolescent male offspring were performed to evaluate the effects of two stressor types on the activity of cholinergic neurons. Open field test, elevated plus maze, passive avoidance test, and conditioned place preference were conducted to assess behavioral and cognitive alterations in the offspring. The offspring of both physical and psychological PS-exposed mice exhibited increased locomotor activity, anxiety-like behavior, memory impairment, and preference to morphine. In both early- and late-firing cholinergic neurons of the LDT, stressed groups demonstrated higher firing frequency, lower adaptation ratio, decreased action potential threshold, and therefore increased excitability compared to the control group. The findings of the present study suggest that the hyperexcitability of the cholinergic neurons of LDT might be involved in the development of PS-associated anxiety-like behaviors, drug seeking, and memory impairment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mohammad Shabani
- Intracellular Recording Lab, Neuroscience Research Center, Neuropharmacology Institute, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, P.O. Box 76198-13159, Kerman, Iran
| | - Mehran Ilaghi
- Intracellular Recording Lab, Neuroscience Research Center, Neuropharmacology Institute, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, P.O. Box 76198-13159, Kerman, Iran
| | - Reyhaneh Naderi
- Laboratory of Emotions Neurobiology, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Pasteur Street 3, 02-093, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Moazamehosadat Razavinasab
- Intracellular Recording Lab, Neuroscience Research Center, Neuropharmacology Institute, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, P.O. Box 76198-13159, Kerman, Iran.
- Department of Physiology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
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Soti M, Ranjbar H, Kohlmeier KA, Shabani M. Sex differences in the vulnerability of the hippocampus to prenatal stress. Dev Psychobiol 2022; 64:e22305. [PMID: 36282753 DOI: 10.1002/dev.22305] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2022] [Revised: 04/21/2022] [Accepted: 05/28/2022] [Indexed: 01/27/2023]
Abstract
Distressing events during pregnancy that engage activity of the body's endocrine stress response have been linked with later life cognitive deficits in offspring and associated with developmental changes in cognitive-controlling neural regions. Interestingly, prenatal stress (PS)-induced alterations have shown some sex specificity. Here, we review the literature of animal studies examining sex-specific effect of physical PS on the function and structure of the hippocampus as hippocampal impairments likely underlie PS-associated deficits in learning and memory. Furthermore, the connectivity between the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and the hippocampus as well as the heavy presence of glucocorticoid receptors (GRs) in the hippocampus suggests this structure plays an important role in modulation of activity within stress circuitry in a sex-specific pattern. We hope that better understanding of sex-specific, PS-related hippocampal impairment will assist in uncovering the molecular mechanisms behind sex-based risk factors in PS populations across development, and perhaps contribute to greater precision in management of cognitive disturbances in this vulnerable population.
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Affiliation(s)
- Monavareh Soti
- Neuroscience Research Center, Neuropharmacology Institute, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
| | - Hoda Ranjbar
- Neuroscience Research Center, Neuropharmacology Institute, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
| | - Kristi A Kohlmeier
- Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Mohammad Shabani
- Neuroscience Research Center, Neuropharmacology Institute, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
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Abramova O, Ushakova V, Zorkina Y, Zubkov E, Storozheva Z, Morozova A, Chekhonin V. The Behavior and Postnatal Development in Infant and Juvenile Rats After Ultrasound-Induced Chronic Prenatal Stress. Front Physiol 2021; 12:659366. [PMID: 33935805 PMCID: PMC8082110 DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2021.659366] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/27/2021] [Accepted: 03/23/2021] [Indexed: 01/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Fetal development is susceptible to environmental factors. One such factor is exposure to stress during pregnancy. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of chronic prenatal stress (PS) on the development and behavior of rat offspring during infancy and juvenile ages. Existing approaches to modeling prenatal stress on animals do not correlate with the main type of stress in pregnant women, namely psychological stress. We used a new stress paradigm in the experiment, namely, stress induced by exposure to variable frequency ultrasound (US), which acted on pregnant Wistar rats on gestational days 1–21. This type of stress in rodents can be comparable to psychological stress in humans. We assessed physical development, reflex maturation, motor ability development, anxious behavior, response to social novelty, and social play behavior in male and female offspring. Additionally, we investigated maternal behavior and the effect of neonatal handling (NH) on behavior. Prenatal stress did not affect postnatal developmental characteristics in rat pups, but prenatally stressed rats had higher body weight in early and adult age than controls. Prenatal exposure to a stressor increased anxiety in the open-field test (OF), changed social preferences in the social novelty test (SN), and impaired social play behavior in males. Neonatal handling reduced anxiety and restored social behavior, but evoked hyperactive behavior in rat pups. Maternal behavior did not change. Our study demonstrated for the first time that exposure to variable frequency ultrasound during pregnancy influences offspring development and impairs behavior, correlating with the effects of other types of stress during pregnancy in rodents. This supports the idea of using this exposure to model prenatal stress.
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Affiliation(s)
- Olga Abramova
- Department of Basic and Applied Neurobiology, V.P. Serbsky National Medical Research Center for Psychiatry and Narcology, Moscow, Russia.,Mental-health Clinic No. 1 Named After N.A. Alexeev of Moscow Healthcare Department, Moscow, Russia
| | - Valeria Ushakova
- Department of Basic and Applied Neurobiology, V.P. Serbsky National Medical Research Center for Psychiatry and Narcology, Moscow, Russia.,Mental-health Clinic No. 1 Named After N.A. Alexeev of Moscow Healthcare Department, Moscow, Russia.,Department of Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia
| | - Yana Zorkina
- Department of Basic and Applied Neurobiology, V.P. Serbsky National Medical Research Center for Psychiatry and Narcology, Moscow, Russia.,Mental-health Clinic No. 1 Named After N.A. Alexeev of Moscow Healthcare Department, Moscow, Russia
| | - Eugene Zubkov
- Department of Basic and Applied Neurobiology, V.P. Serbsky National Medical Research Center for Psychiatry and Narcology, Moscow, Russia
| | - Zinaida Storozheva
- Department of Basic and Applied Neurobiology, V.P. Serbsky National Medical Research Center for Psychiatry and Narcology, Moscow, Russia
| | - Anna Morozova
- Department of Basic and Applied Neurobiology, V.P. Serbsky National Medical Research Center for Psychiatry and Narcology, Moscow, Russia.,Mental-health Clinic No. 1 Named After N.A. Alexeev of Moscow Healthcare Department, Moscow, Russia
| | - Vladimir Chekhonin
- Department of Basic and Applied Neurobiology, V.P. Serbsky National Medical Research Center for Psychiatry and Narcology, Moscow, Russia.,Department of Medical Nanobiotechnology, Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, Moscow, Russia
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