Prenatal stress and increased fluctuating asymmetry in the parietal bones of neonatal rats

Abstract

Recent studies have reported increased fluctuating dental and long bone asymmetry in neonates as a function of prenatal stress. The present study was designed to assess the effects of prenatal stress on a third calcium-dependent system, membranous bone. Pregnant rats were exposed to cold, heat, or noise from conception through parturition. Bilateral parietal bone lengths were measured in the term neonates. Levels of fluctuating asymmetry were found to be significantly increased (p less than .001) in all three stressed groups compared to unstressed controls. Results support the concept of a generalized stress response, and suggestions are offered for human osteological application.

Birth order and fluctuating asymmetry: a first look

“…A number of prenatal environmental stressors during pregnancy have been found to create dental asymmetry in the o¡spring of rats (e.g. Sciulli et al 1979;Mooney et al 1985).…”

Prenatal Psychological Stress, Dermatoglyphic Asymmetry and Pregnancy Outcome in the Pigtailed Macaque (<i>Macaca nemestrina</i>)

“…In 1962, Van Valen [24] applied the concept to the denti tion, and since then more than 25 publica tions have appeared dealing specifically with fluctuating dental asymmetry alone [25], while others have focussed on skeletal di mensions [26][27][28], bone and dental density [29,30], and dermatoglyphic features in cluding ridge counts [31][32][33][34] and the atd angle [35,36], The majority of studies have treated the presence of fluctuating asymme try as evidence for the presence of a stressor during development, in particular prenatal development [28-30, 37, 38], Consistent with this view is the finding that the degree of asymmetry is positively correlated with the magnitude of the environmental stressor [29,39], Some workers, however, have ques tioned the interpretation of fluctuating asymmetry as a general and biologically valid indicator of developmental decanaliza tion on an individual basis [25,40] or as a simple monitor of environmental stress alone [41][42][43]; while others have emphasized the confounding effects introduced into the results by sample size and measurement er ror [25,41,44], It is clear that more experi mental studies are needed to identify the nature of environmental stressors, including those of a psychosocial origin, and the extent of their association, if any, with the presence of increased fluctuating asymmetry.…”

Evaluation of asymmetry using thumbprint minutiae among Hausa population of Kano State, Nigeria

“…This led to manifestation of permanent signs in the adult body as a result of genetic and external perturbations in the environment. One of the manifestations includes small deviations from perfect symmetry in bilateral structure which correlates negatively with the amount of stress experienced during development (Siegel and Smookler, 1973;Siegel et al, 1977;Mooney et al, 1985). Many factors such as extreme temperatures, environmental pollution, population density, and inbreeding among others are reported to be potential stressors encountered by developing organisms (Parsons, 1992;Markow and Martin, 1993;Galeotti et al, 2005;Velickovic, 2007;Lewis et al, 2008).…”