Long-Term Effects of Maternal Deprivation on the Neuronal Soma Area in the Rat Neocortex

Abstract

Early separation of rat pups from their mothers (separatio a matrem) is considered and accepted as an animal model of perinatal stress. Adult rats, separated early postnatally from their mothers, are developing long-lasting changes in the brain and neuroendocrine system, corresponding to the findings observed in schizophrenia and affective disorders. With the aim to investigate the morphological changes in this animal model we exposed 9-day-old (P9) Wistar rats to a 24 h maternal deprivation (MD). At young adult age rats were sacrificed for morphometric analysis and their brains were compared with the control group bred under the same conditions, but without MD. Rats exposed to MD had a 28% smaller cell soma area in the prefrontal cortex (PFCX), 30% in retrosplenial cortex (RSCX), and 15% in motor cortex (MCX) compared to the controls. No difference was observed in the expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein in the neocortex of MD rats compared to the control group. The results of this study demonstrate that stress in early life has a long-term effect on neuronal soma size in cingulate and retrosplenial cortex and is potentially interesting as these structures play an important role in cognition.

Long-Term Effects of Maternal Deprivation on Redox Regulation in Rat Brain: Involvement of NADPH Oxidase

“…Our previous study [63] demonstrated that MD has a long-term effect on brain morphology causing a decrease in hippocampal volume, as well as a decreased thickness of the prefrontal, retrosplenial, and motor cortex in rats' brain and decreased expression of NeuN, a neuronal marker, which now can be related to excessive production of ROS and disturbed oxidative defense demonstrated in the present study.…”

“…The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of NOX subunits and that of a microglial marker Iba1 (ionized calcium binding adaptor molecule 1) in the different brain regions of adult rats previously subjected to MD on postnatal day nine. We studied the cerebral cortex, hippocampus, thalamus, and caudate nuclei, as these structures have been shown to be affected by MD at the structural and/or functional level [15–18]. The activities of complex I and cytochrome C oxidase (COX), as well as the activities or levels of other oxidative stress parameters were also determined.…”

Prolonged maternal separation induces undernutrition and systemic inflammation with disrupted hippocampal development in mice

“…Significant reductions in hippocampal volume (71%) and size of pyramidal (62%) and granular (60%) cell layers of the adult hippocampus have been found following early-life maternal deprivation [39]. …”

Neonatal Administration of Memantine Enhances Social Cognition in Adult Rats Subjected to Early Maternal Deprivation

“…The early maternal deprivation model induces prefrontal changes that persist in adult rat brain, generating behavioral disturbances in adult life that reminiscence schizophrenic's symptom [2223]. …”