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Marchisella F, Creutzberg KC, Begni V, Sanson A, Wearick-Silva LE, Tractenberg SG, Orso R, Kestering-Ferreira É, Grassi-Oliveira R, Riva MA. Exposure to Prenatal Stress Is Associated With an Excitatory/Inhibitory Imbalance in Rat Prefrontal Cortex and Amygdala and an Increased Risk for Emotional Dysregulation. Front Cell Dev Biol 2021; 9:653384. [PMID: 34141707 PMCID: PMC8204112 DOI: 10.3389/fcell.2021.653384] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2021] [Accepted: 04/07/2021] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Epidemiological studies have shown that environmental insults and maternal stress during pregnancy increase the risk of several psychiatric disorders in the offspring. Converging lines of evidence from humans, as well as from rodent models, suggest that prenatal stress (PNS) interferes with fetal development, ultimately determining changes in brain maturation and function that may lead to the onset of neuropsychiatric disorders. From a molecular standpoint, transcriptional alterations are thought to play a major role in this context and may contribute to the behavioral phenotype by shifting the expression of genes related to excitatory and inhibitory (E/I) transmission balance. Nevertheless, the exact neurophysiological mechanisms underlying the enhanced vulnerability to psychopathology following PNS exposure are not well understood. In the present study, we used a model of maternal stress in rats to investigate the distal effects of PNS on the expression of genes related to glutamatergic and GABAergic neurotransmissions. We inspected two critical brain regions involved in emotion regulation, namely, the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and the amygdala (AMY), which we show to relate with the mild behavioral effects detected in adult rat offspring. We observed that PNS exposure promotes E/I imbalance in the PFC of adult males only, by dysregulating the expression of glutamatergic-related genes. Moreover, such an effect is accompanied by increased expression of the activity-dependent synaptic modulator gene Npas4 specifically in the PFC parvalbumin (PV)-positive interneurons, suggesting an altered regulation of synapse formation promoting higher PV-dependent inhibitory transmission and increased overall circuit inhibition in the PFC of males. In the AMY, PNS more evidently affects the transcription of GABAergic-related genes, shifting the balance toward inhibition. Collectively, our findings suggest that the E/I dysregulation of the PFC-to-AMY transmission may be a long-term signature of PNS and may contribute to increase the risk for mood disorder upon further stress.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francesca Marchisella
- Laboratory of Psychopharmacology and Molecular Psychiatry, Department of Pharmacological and Biomolecular Sciences, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
| | - Kerstin Camile Creutzberg
- Laboratory of Psychopharmacology and Molecular Psychiatry, Department of Pharmacological and Biomolecular Sciences, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
| | - Veronica Begni
- Laboratory of Psychopharmacology and Molecular Psychiatry, Department of Pharmacological and Biomolecular Sciences, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
| | - Alice Sanson
- Laboratory of Psychopharmacology and Molecular Psychiatry, Department of Pharmacological and Biomolecular Sciences, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
| | - Luis Eduardo Wearick-Silva
- Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, Brain Institute, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
| | - Saulo Gantes Tractenberg
- Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, Brain Institute, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
| | - Rodrigo Orso
- Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, Brain Institute, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
| | - Érika Kestering-Ferreira
- Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, Brain Institute, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
| | - Rodrigo Grassi-Oliveira
- Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, Brain Institute, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil.,Translational Neuropsychiatry Unit, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Marco Andrea Riva
- Laboratory of Psychopharmacology and Molecular Psychiatry, Department of Pharmacological and Biomolecular Sciences, University of Milan, Milan, Italy.,Biological Psychiatry Unit, IRCCS Istituto Centro San Giovanni di Dio Fatebenefratelli Brescia, Brescia, Italy
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Viola TW, Wearick-Silva LE, Creutzberg KC, Kestering-Ferreira É, Orso R, Centeno-Silva A, Albrechet-Souza L, Marshall PR, Li X, Bredy TW, Riva MA, Grassi-Oliveira R. Postnatal impoverished housing impairs adolescent risk-assessment and increases risk-taking: A sex-specific effect associated with histone epigenetic regulation of Crfr1 in the medial prefrontal cortex. Psychoneuroendocrinology 2019; 99:8-19. [PMID: 30172072 DOI: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2018.08.032] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/10/2018] [Revised: 07/21/2018] [Accepted: 08/24/2018] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
Abstract
While increasing evidence posits poor decision-making as a central feature of mental disorders, very few studies investigated the effects of early-life stress (ELS) on specific components of reward-related choice behaviors. Risk-taking (RT) involves the exposure to some danger, or negative consequences, in order to achieve a goal-directed behavior. Such behaviors are likely to be preceded by risk-assessment (RA), which is a dynamic cognitive process involving the acquisition of information in potentially dangerous situations. Here, we investigated the effects of being raised in impoverished housing conditions during early life (P2-P9) on RT, RA and dopaminergic and corticotrophinergic gene expression of adolescent male and female mice. Phenotypes were assessed by two protocols: the elevated plus-maze (EPM) and the predator-odor risk-taking (PORT). We found decreased RA in mice exposed to impoverished housing in the absence of a reward (EPM), with a more pronounced effect among females. Moreover, when exposed to a predatory olfactory cue, increased RT was observed in these females in a reward-related task (PORT), as well as decreased HPA axis responsivity. This sex-specific behavioral effect was associated with increased Crfr1 mRNA expression in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and higher levels of the histone mark H3R2me2s, a histone modification known to be involved in transcriptional activation, within the promoter of the Crfr1 gene. These findings revealed that ELS exposure can impair the acquisition of environmental information in dangerous situations and increase RT in reward-related scenarios among females, with an important role regarding epigenetic regulation of the Crfr1 gene.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thiago Wendt Viola
- Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Brain Institute (InsCer), Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil
| | - Luis Eduardo Wearick-Silva
- Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Brain Institute (InsCer), Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil
| | - Kerstin C Creutzberg
- Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Brain Institute (InsCer), Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil
| | - Érika Kestering-Ferreira
- Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Brain Institute (InsCer), Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil
| | - Rodrigo Orso
- Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Brain Institute (InsCer), Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil
| | - Anderson Centeno-Silva
- Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Brain Institute (InsCer), Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil
| | - Lucas Albrechet-Souza
- Louisiana State University, Health Sciences Center, Department of Physiology, New Orleans, United States
| | - Paul R Marshall
- University of Queensland, Queensland Brain Institute, Brisbane, Australia
| | - Xiang Li
- University of Queensland, Queensland Brain Institute, Brisbane, Australia
| | - Timothy W Bredy
- University of Queensland, Queensland Brain Institute, Brisbane, Australia
| | - Marco A Riva
- Università degli Studi di Milano, Department of Pharmacological and Biomolecular Sciences, Milan, Italy
| | - Rodrigo Grassi-Oliveira
- Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Brain Institute (InsCer), Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
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