Chinese Journal Of Clinical Anatomy ›› 2015, Vol. 33 ›› Issue (5): 549-552.doi: 10.13418/j.issn.1001-165x.2015.05.014

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Effect of prenatal stress on the expression of Parvalbuminand Calretinin in adult female rat offspring

WU Xiao-qiong1, WANG Qi-ben2, CAI Wei-jun2, LUO Ming-ying3   

  1. 1. Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology, Xiangya School of Medicine; 2. Department of Histology & Embryology,Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University, Changsha 410003,China; 3.Department of Anatomy &Histology & Embryology, Kunming Medical University, Yunnan 650500, China
  • Received:2014-12-12 Online:2015-09-25 Published:2015-10-13

Abstract:

Objective  To observe the effect of prenatal stress on the expression of Parvalbumin(PV)and Calretinin(CR)in adult female rat offspring.    Methods    Six pregnant SD rats were randomly divided into a prenatal stress (PS) group and a control group (CON).  Rats in PS  group were subjected to restraint stress during the late gestational periods, while rats in the control group were not given prenatal stress. The adult female offspring were randomly divided into PS plus stress group (PS-S) and PS without stress group(PS-NS), CON plus stress group (CON-S) and CON plus no stress group (CON-NS). The rats in PS-S and CON-S were subjected to restraint and ice-water stress. All rats were offered free choice between water and ethanol solution. After model establishment, brain tissues were harvested, the levels of PVand CR proteins in the hippocampus were detected by Western blot. Furthermore, PV and CR expression in hippocampus CA1, CA3 and dentate gyrus were determined with confocal immunofluorescence.   Results    Compared to CON-NS group, the protein of PV and CR in the hippocampus was meaningfully decreased in CON-S, PS-NS and PS-S groups,  with the lowest being in the PS-S group. The immunofluorescent results of PV and CR in hippocampus CA1, CA3 and dentate gyrus were in agreements with the PV protein expression, which showed obviously decreased positive staining cells. Statistic analysis showed PV and CR expression had a significant difference between CON-NS and other groups, with most significant decrease of expression being in the PS-S group (P<0.05).    Coclusion    Prenatal stress may directly affect the calcium binding proteins PV and CR in the hippocampus of adult female rat offspring.

Key words:  Prenatal stress, Ethanol intake, Calcium binding proteins