Stress during pregnancy in humans is known to be a risk factor for neuropsychiatric disorders in the offspring. Prenatal stress in rats caused depressive-like behavior that was restored to that of controls by maternal treatment with ladostigil (8.5 mg/kg per day), a brain-selective monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitor that prevented increased anxiety-like behavior in stressed mothers. Ladostigil inhibited maternal striatal MAO-A and -B by 45-50% at the time the pups were weaned. Using resting state-functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging on rat male offspring of control mothers, and mothers stressed during gestation with and without ladostigil treatment, we identified neuronal connections that differed between these groups. The percentage of significant connections within a predefined predominantly limbic network in control rats was 23.3 within the right and 22.0 within the left hemisphere. Prenatal stress disturbed hemispheric symmetry, resulting in 30.2 and 21.6%, significant connections in the right and left hemispheres, respectively, but this was fully restored in the maternal ladostigil group to 24.6% in both hemispheres. All connections that were modified in prenatally stressed rats and restored by maternal drug treatment were associated with the dopaminergic system. Specifically, we observed that restoration of the connections of the right nucleus accumbens shell with frontal areas, the cingulate, septum and motor and sensory cortices, and those of the right globus pallidus with the infra-limbic and the dentate gyrus, were most important for prevention of depressive-like behavior.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.