Full text

Turn on search term navigation

© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

Prenatal maternal stress is linked to adverse pregnancy and infant outcomes, including shortened gestation lengths, low birth weights, cardio-metabolic dysfunction, and cognitive and behavioural problems. Stress disrupts the homeostatic milieu of pregnancy by altering inflammatory and neuroendocrine mediators. These stress-induced phenotypic changes can be passed on to the offspring epigenetically. We investigated the effects of gestational chronic variable stress (CVS) in rats using restraint and social isolation stress in the parental F0 generation and its transgenerational transmission across three generations of female offspring (F1–F3). A subset of F1 rats was housed in an enriched environment (EE) to mitigate the adverse effects of CVS. We found that CVS is transmitted across generations and induces inflammatory changes in the uterus. CVS did not alter any gestational lengths or birth weights. However, inflammatory and endocrine markers changed in the uterine tissues of stressed mothers and their offspring, suggesting that stress is transgenerationally transmitted. The F2 offspring reared in EE had increased birth weights, but their uterine gene expression patterns remained comparable to those of stressed animals. Thus, ancestral CVS induced changes transgenerationally in fetal programming of uterine stress markers over three generations of offspring, and EE housing did not mitigate these effects.

Details

Title
Environmental Enrichment Promotes Transgenerational Programming of Uterine Inflammatory and Stress Markers Comparable to Gestational Chronic Variable Stress
Author
Lopes, Nayara A 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Ambeskovic, Mirela 2 ; King, Stephanie E 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Faraji, Jamshid 2 ; Soltanpour, Nasrin 2 ; Falkenberg, Erin A 2 ; Taylor Scheidl 3 ; Patel, Mansi 2 ; Fang, Xin 3 ; Metz, Gerlinde A S 4   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Olson, David M 5 

 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2R3, Canada; Department of Physiology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2R3, Canada 
 Department of Neuroscience, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB T1K 3M4, Canada 
 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2R3, Canada 
 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2R3, Canada; Department of Neuroscience, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB T1K 3M4, Canada 
 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2R3, Canada; Department of Physiology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2R3, Canada; Department of Neuroscience, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB T1K 3M4, Canada; Department of Pediatrics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2R3, Canada 
First page
3734
Publication year
2023
Publication date
2023
Publisher
MDPI AG
ISSN
16616596
e-ISSN
14220067
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2779535958
Copyright
© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.