Effects of maternal immune activation on brain arginine metabolism of postnatal day 2 rat offspring

Sex differences in the neurochemistry of frontal cortex: Impact of early life stress

“…GABA levels were unchanged in juvenile and adult offspring following Poly:IC injection at E15 or E17, regardless of sex (Bitanihirwe et al, 2010;Zhang et al, 2018). However, LPS-induced maternal immune activation (E15-16) reduced the number of parvalbuminpositive cells in both adult males and females , while a longer maternal immune activation with LPS (E7-21; alternate days) led to reduced GAD67-and parvalbumin-positive cells in the PFC of adult females, but not males (Basta-Kaim et al, 2015).…”

“…In the rat PFC, males have higher baseline spontaneous glutamate release compared to females (Pena‐Bravo et al 2019), which is consistent with findings in human PFC (O'Gorman et al., 2011). However, frontal cortex tissue concentration of glutamate levels in rats do not show sex differences (Zhang et al., 2018). The discrepancies highlight potential subregion‐specificity in glutamate release in the frontal cortex.…”

Maternal immune activation altered microglial immunoreactivity in the brain of postnatal day 2 rat offspring

“…Third, the present study did not determine the cytokine-level changes in the brain of the MIA offspring to confirm the level of inflammation reached due to the unavailability of brain tissues. However, dams that were treated with PolyI:C in the study of Zhang et al (2018a) displayed sickness behavior (such as lethargy and lack of grooming) and a clear body weight loss by 24-hr post-injection, indicating MIA in the PolyI:C-treated dams. Nevertheless, the present study shows altered IBA-1 immunoreactivity in multiple brain regions of the MIA rat offspring at age of PND 2.…”

“…These pregnant rats were then anesthetized with halothane on GD15. Four dams were given a single tail vein injection of Poly I:C dissolved with saline at the dose of 4.0 mg/kg (MIA), and the remaining four dams received an injection of saline equivalent (control), as described previously (Jing et al, ; Wolff & Bilkey, ; Zhang et al, ). In the present study, the dams gave birth on day 21 or 22 of pregnancy.…”

“…Experimentally, alterations in the brain structure, morphology, electrophysiology, neurochemistry, and behavior are evident in adult rodent offspring from the dams that received a systemic administration of polyI:C during mid-gestation (Boksa, 2010;Dickerson et al, 2010;Jing et al, 2013;Li et al, 2009;Piontkewitz et al, 2012;Powell, 2010;Winter et al, 2009;Zuckerman & Weiner, 2005;Zuckerman et al, 2003). Intriguingly, a single MIA insult induced by poly I:C or human influenza virus also alters the brain arginine metabolism and immunoreactivity for neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) in rat or mouse offspring during early neonatal development (Fatemi et al, 1998;Zhang et al, 2018aZhang et al, , 2018b.…”