Physical exercise during pregnancy minimizes PTZ‐induced behavioral manifestations in prenatally stressed offspring

Abstract

Stress during gestation has been shown to affect susceptibility and intensity of seizures in offspring. Environmental stimuli, such as maternal physical exercise, have shown to be beneficial for brain development. Although studies have demonstrated the deleterious influence of stress during pregnancy on seizure manifestation in offspring, very little is known on how to minimize these effects. This study verified whether physical exercise during the pregnancy associated with prenatal stress minimizes seizure susceptibility in offspring at the beginning of postnatal development. Pregnant rats and male pups were divided into the following groups: control, stress, stress/forced exercise, and stress/voluntary exercise. Behavioral manifestations were analyzed after injection of pentylenetetrazol (PTZ; 45 and 60 mg/kg) at ages P15 and P25. Increased behavioral manifestations and seizure severity was observed in the stress group compared with the control group at both ages. At the dose of 45 mg/kg, offspring of stressed mothers who performed both physical exercise models showed an increase in latency for the first manifestation and decrease in the seizures severity at both ages compared with the mothers groups who were only stressed. Prenatal restraint stress potentiated PTZ‐induced seizure behavior, and both forced and voluntary exercise during gestation attenuates the negative effects of PTZ‐induced offspring.

The effects of forced exercise and zinc supplementation during pregnancy on prenatally stress‐induced behavioral and neurobiological consequences in adolescent female rat offspring

“…Based on our findings, while exhausting physical activity is less prevalent among pregnant women, when encountered, it could frequently exacerbate stress during pregnancy. Although exercise and treadmill running have been considered well‐known animal models of stressful conditions (Hong et al., 2014; Lim et al., 2001; Seo et al., 2011), some ameliorating and protective effects of voluntary and mild‐intensity exercise on behavioral consequences of PS have been reported (Brocardo et al., 2012; Kim et al., 2013; Lopim et al., 2020). Differences in the protocol of exercise (timing and duration), type of exercise (voluntary vs. involuntary), exercise intensity (heavy vs. mild), the period of exercise (prenatal vs. postnatal), gestational stage (early, mid, or late), kind of the behavioral assessment as well as sex and age of the offspring, may explain this discrepancy between the results.…”

“…The forced treadmill ES was conducted according to a slightly modified procedure previously reported (Hong et al., 2014; Lopim et al., 2020). The 5‐line automatic rat treadmill setting with 0° slop and a 0.1 mA shock was used for the forced exercise training.…”

“…The forced treadmill ES was conducted according to a slightly modified procedure previously reported (Hong et al, 2014;Lopim et al, 2020).…”

Prenatal stress impairs recognition memory and leads to neurodevelopmental deficits in hippocampus of adolescent rats with early acute pentylenetetrazole-kindling

“…Prenatal stress (PS) especially increases the tendency and frequency of seizures causing neurodevelopmental deficits in the brain [2]. PS impairs the regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitaryadrenal axis and decreases the seizure threshold through glucocorticoid enhancement [3]. Furthermore, suppression of the inhibitor GABAergic neurons and constant depolarization of glutamatergic neurons [4, e-ISSN: 2149-3189 5] impairs the neonatal hippocampus through volume loss, dendritic atrophy, suppression of synaptic transmission [6,7,8].…”