Effects of maternal exposure to social stress during pregnancy: consequences for mother and offspring

Abstract

A suboptimal in utero environment, for example, as a result of maternal stress, can have detrimental effects on the pregnancy and long-term adverse 'programming' effects on the offspring. This article focuses on the effects of prenatal social stress on the mother, her pregnancy and the offspring, since these issues have ethological relevance in both animals and humans. The consequences of social stress exposure depend on when during pregnancy the stress occurs, and many of the effects on the offspring are sex specific. Social stress during early pregnancy tends to result in pregnancy loss, whereas stress exposure later in pregnancy, when the mother has already invested considerable resources in the foetuses, results in programmed offspring of low birth weight: a risk factor for various adulthood diseases. Neuroendocrine and behavioural responses to stress in the offspring are particularly sensitive to foetal programming by prenatal stress, indicated by enhanced hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis responses and increased anxiety behaviour, which result from permanent changes in the offspring's brain. The dysregulation of HPA axis function may also interfere with other systems, for example, the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis, as there is evidence for alterations in steroidogenesis, reproductive potential and impaired reproductive/social behaviours in prenatally stressed offspring. Prenatal social stress also programmes future maternal behaviour, highlighting the potential for negative phenotypes to be transmitted to future generations. The possible mechanisms through which maternal stress during pregnancy is transmitted to the foetuses and the foetal brain is programmed by prenatal stress and the potential to overwrite programming of the offspring are discussed.Reproduction (2013) 146 R175-R189

Effects of communal rearing and group size on breeding rabbits’ post-grouping behaviour and its relation to ano-genital distance

“…Increased testosterone levels induce agonistic behaviour in dominant rabbits (Briganti et al 2003), and may thus explain the numerically higher frequency of offensive behaviour in our communally reared rabbits. Exposure to unfamiliar conspecifics during pregnancy can also decrease social activity in female offspring (Marchlewska-Koj et al, 2003;Brunton, 2013), which may explain the lower levels of sniffing/grooming in our communally reared rabbits. The exact mechanisms through which prenatal stress affects behaviour are not fully clear, but research suggests that maternal steroids play a decisive role and both the maternal pituitary adrenocortical and sympathetic adrenomedullary system are likely involved (Kaiser and Sachser, 2005;Brunton, 2013).…”

Paternal Programming of Liver Function and Lipid Profile Induced by a Paternal Pre-Conceptional Unhealthy Diet: Potential Association with Altered Gut Microbiome Composition

“…So far, many different maternal programming factors have been discovered (for example over- or undernutrition [33-35], lack of micronutrients [36, 37], and stress during pregnancy [38-40]). However, more recent studies showed that also paternal exposure to adverse environmental conditions can act on the offspring’s phenotype in terms of fetal programming and influence later life disease risk [11, 28].…”

Hatchlings of the Marine Turtle Lepidochelys olivacea Display Signs of Prenatal Stress at Emergence after Being Incubated in Man-Made Nests: A Preliminary Report

“…At sea arrival, the magnitude of the evoked release of corticosterone was significantly lower MMN than in NN hatchlings (intragroup comparisons; Fisher LSD means comparison test, ξ p = 0.003). Brunton, 2013), a circumstance that leads to reduced body weight at birth. In mammals, stress-associated fetal growth retardation commonly results from prenatal undernourishment due to placental insufficiency, a process mediated by epigenetic mechanisms (Leigh, 2010).…”