scholarly journals Early life stress and behavior problems in early childhood: Investigating the contributions of child temperament and executive functions to resilience

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donna A. Maat ◽  
Isabel K. Schuurmans ◽  
Joran Jongerling ◽  
Stephen A. Metcalf ◽  
Nicole Lucassen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Behavior Problems ◽  
Executive Functions ◽  
Life Stress ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Early Life Stress ◽  
Child Temperament ◽  
And Behavior

scholarly journals Methylation of the glucocorticoid receptor promoter in children: Links with parents as teachers, early life stress, and behavior problems

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Elena Silvia Gardini ◽  
Simone Schaub ◽  
Alex Neuhauser ◽  
Erich Ramseier ◽  
Arna Villiger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Behavior Problems ◽  
Glucocorticoid Receptor ◽  
Life Stress ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Early Life Stress ◽  
Parents As Teachers ◽  
Cpg Site ◽  
Glucocorticoid Receptor Gene ◽  
And Behavior

Abstract The present study examined the effect of early life stress (ELS) on the glucocorticoid receptor gene (NR3C1) methylation, the associations between NR3C1 methylation and behavior problems, and the effect of the program Parents as Teachers (PAT) on NR3C1 methylation. Participants included 132 children, 72 assigned to the PAT intervention group and 60 to the PAT control group. Children were aged 3 years, and were living in psychosocially at-risk families. We assessed NR3C1 methylation of the NGFI-A binding regions of exon 1F via sodium bisulfite sequencing from saliva DNA. Results indicated that (a) children living in families receiving PAT had decreased methylation at one single cytosine–guanine dinucleotides (CpG) site; (b) current maternal depressive symptoms and parental disagreement were predictive of increased methylation of mean NGFI-A and three single CpG sites; and (c) increased methylation of mean NGFI-A and one single CpG site was significantly associated with increased internalizing and externalizing symptoms. In addition, mean NGFI-A was a mediator of the association between parental disagreement and a child's affective problems. These results suggest that PAT may contribute to preventing NR3C1 methylation in preschool children living in psychosocially at-risk situations, and confirm previous findings on the associations between ELS, NR3C1 methylation, and behavior problems.

Early-life stress mediated modulation of adult neurogenesis and behavior

2012 ◽  
Vol 227 (2) ◽  
pp. 400-409 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Korosi ◽  
E.F.G. Naninck ◽  
C.A. Oomen ◽  
M. Schouten ◽  
H. Krugers ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Adult Neurogenesis ◽  
Life Stress ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Early Life Stress ◽  
And Behavior

scholarly journals Hippocampal astroglial hypertrophy in mice subjected to early life maternal deprivation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnab Nandi ◽  
Garima Virmani ◽  
Swananda Marathe
Keyword(s):  
Immune Responses ◽  
Life Stress ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Maternal Separation ◽  
Early Life Stress ◽  
Stratum Radiatum ◽  
Late Adulthood ◽  
Synaptic Physiology ◽  
And Behavior

Early-life stress (ELS), including chronic deprivation of maternal care, exerts persistent life-long effects on animal physiology and behavior, and is associated with several neurodevelopmental disorders. Long-lasting changes in neuronal plasticity and electrophysiology are documented extensively in the animal models of ELS. However, the role of astroglia in the lasting effects of ELS remains elusive. Astrocytes are intricately involved in the regulation of synaptic physiology and behavior. Moreover, astrocytes play a major role in the innate and adaptive immune responses in the central nervous system (CNS). The role of immune responses and neuroinflammation in the altered brain development and persistent adverse effects of ELS are beginning to be explored. Innate immune response in the CNS is characterized by a phenomenon called astrogliosis, a process in which astrocytes undergo hypertrophy, along with changes in gene expression and function. While the immune activation and neuroinflammatory changes concomitant with ELS, or in juveniles and young adults have been reported, it is unclear whether mice subjected to ELS exhibit astrogliosis-like alterations well into late-adulthood. Here, we subjected mice to maternal separation from postnatal day 2 to day 22 and performed comprehensive morphometric analysis of hippocampal astrocytes during late-adulthood. We found that the astrocytes in the stratum radiatum region of the CA1 hippocampal subfield from maternally separated mice exhibit significant hypertrophy as late as 8 months of age, revealing the crucial changes in astrocytes that manifest long after the cessation of ELS. This study highlights the persistence of neuroinflammatory changes in mice exposed to ELS.

scholarly journals Animal Models and Their Contribution to Our Understanding of the Relationship Between Environments, Epigenetic Modifications, and Behavior

Genes ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Ledo Husby Phillips ◽  
Tania L. Roth
Keyword(s):  
Animal Models ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Life Stress ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Early Life Stress ◽  
Human Biology ◽  
Environmental Toxicants ◽  
Immune Challenges ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
The Relationship

The use of non-human animals in research is a longstanding practice to help us understand and improve human biology and health. Animal models allow researchers, for example, to carefully manipulate environmental factors in order to understand how they contribute to development, behavior, and health. In the field of behavioral epigenetics such approaches have contributed novel findings of how the environment physically interacts with our genes, leading to changes in behavior and health. This review highlights some of this research, focused on prenatal immune challenges, environmental toxicants, diet, and early-life stress. In conjunction, we also discuss why animal models were integral to these discoveries and the translational relevance of these discoveries.

scholarly journals Got Milk? Maternal immune activation during the mid-lactational period affects nutritional milk quality and adolescent offspring sensory processing in male and female rats

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holly DeRosa ◽  
Hieu Tran ◽  
Amanda C Kentner
Keyword(s):  
Animal Models ◽  
Immune Activation ◽  
Maternal Care ◽  
Life Stress ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Early Life Stress ◽  
Female Rats ◽  
Maternal Immune Activation ◽  
Adolescent Offspring ◽  
And Behavior

The neonatal environment requires a high level of maternal demand in terms of both breastfeeding and other forms of maternal care. Previous studies have underscored the importance of these maternal factors on offspring development and behavior. However, their contribution as dynamic variables in animal models of early life stress are often overlooked. In the present study, we show that lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced maternal immune activation (MIA) on postnatal day (P)10 immediately elevated milk corticosterone concentrations, which recovered by P11. In contrast, both milk triglyceride and percent creamatocrit values demonstrated a prolonged decrease following inflammatory challenge. Sustained inflammatory-induced changes to the nutritional quality of milk were also evidenced by its composition of microbial communities associated with inefficient energy and lipid metabolism. Nutritional deficits in early development have been associated with metabolic dysfunction later in life. Indeed, MIA-associated changes in the nutritional profile of milk were reflected by increased adolescent offspring bodyweights. While MIA did not decrease maternal care quality, there was a significant compensatory increase in maternal licking and grooming the day that followed the inflammatory challenge. However, this did not protect against disrupted neonatal huddling or later-life alterations in sensorimotor gating and mechanical allodynia in MIA offspring. Animal models of early life stress can impact both parents and their offspring. One mechanism that can mediate the effects of such stressors is changes to maternal lactation quality which our data show can confer multifaceted and compounding effects on offspring physiology and behavior.

scholarly journals Investigating peripubertal stress and exogenous corticosterone as endogenous stimulators of brain metabolism

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathalie Just
Keyword(s):  
Life Stress ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Acute Stress ◽  
Lactate Concentration ◽  
Early Life Stress ◽  
Resonance Spectroscopy ◽  
Adult Rats ◽  
Concentration Changes ◽  
As Stress ◽  
And Behavior

AbstractSubstantial research on the association between early-life stress and its long-lasting impact on lifetime mental health has been performed revealing that early-life environmental adversity strongly regulates brain function. Alterations of gene expression and behavior in the off-springs of paternally stressed rats were also revealed. However, the precise mechanisms underlying these changes remain poorly understood. Here, an improved characterization of these processes from investigations of the functional metabolism of animal models exposed to peripubertal stress (PS) is proposed. The ultimate goal of this study was to bring forward functional Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (fMRS) as a technique of interest for a better understanding of brain areas by endogenous stimulators such as stress. The present study evaluated, compared and classified effects of individual PS (iPS) and paternal PS (pPS) under corticosterone (CORT) challenge in the septal areas of adult rats. Acute stress was simulated by injection of CORT and metabolic concentration changes were analyzed as a function of time. Evaluation of Glucose and Lactate concentration changes allowed the classification of groups of rats using a Glc to Lac index. Moreover, metabolic responses of control rats (CC) and of pPS x iPS rats (SS) were similar while responses in pPS (SC) and iPS (CS) differed, revealing differential adaption of energetic metabolism and of glutamatergic neurotransmission. Findings have crucial interest for understanding the metabolic mechanisms underlying altered functional connectivity and neuronal plasticity in septal areas inducing increased aggressivity in early-life stressed rats.

scholarly journals Early life stress-induced vulnerability to postpartum mental disturbance: prolonged dysregulation of the HPA axis and behavior

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minae Niwa ◽  
Sedona Lockhart ◽  
Daniel J Wood ◽  
Kun Yang ◽  
Kyohei Kin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Hpa Axis ◽  
Life Stress ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Early Life Stress ◽  
Behavioral Changes ◽  
Behavioral Deficits ◽  
Hpa Axis Dysregulation ◽  
Treatment Refractory ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Novel Model

Early life stress (ELS) increases the risk for postpartum depression (PPD). Patients with depression who experienced ELS tend to be treatment refractory. Nevertheless, it remains elusive how ELS underlies the pathophysiology of PPD at the mechanistic level. Here we observed that adolescent social isolation in mice resulted in an aberrantly sustained elevation of glucocorticoids via hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis dysregulation and long-lasting behavioral deficits during the postpartum period. The postpartum behavioral changes elicited by ELS were not ameliorated by the medicines currently used for PPD in behavioral assays that are frequently used in drug discovery for human depression. However, post-delivery treatment with a glucocorticoid receptor antagonist effectively ameliorated the deficits. We also demonstrated a significant impact of ELS on the HPA axis dysregulation and PPD in humans. In summary, we show the validity and utility of a novel model and a novel option of treatment for a subset of treatment-refractory PPD.

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