Effects of Perinatal Stress and Drug Abuse on Maternal Behavior and Sensorimotor Development of Affected Progeny

Methamphetamine (MA) is an addictive psychostimulant with significant potential for abuse. Previous rat studies have demonstrated that MA use during pregnancy impairs maternal behavior and induced delayed development of affected pups. The offspring of drug-addictive mothers were often neglected and exposed to neonatal stressors. The present study therefore examines the effect of perinatal stressors combined with exposure to prenatal MA on the development of pups and maternal behavior. Dams were divided into three groups according to drug treatment during pregnancy: controls (C); saline (SA, s.c., 1 ml/kg); MA (s.c., 5 mg/ml/kg). Litters were divided into four groups according to postnatal stressors: controls (N); maternal separation (S); maternal cold-water stress (W); maternal separation plus cold-water stress (SW). The pup-retrieval test showed differences among postnatally stressed mothers and non-stressed controls. The righting reflex on a surface revealed delayed development of pups prenatally exposed to MA/SA and postnatal stress. Negative geotaxis and Rotarod results confirmed that the MA group was the most affected. Overall, our data suggests that a combination of perinatal stress and prenatal MA can have a detrimental effect on maternal behavior as well as on the sensorimotor development of pups. However, MA exposure during pregnancy seems to be the decisive factor for impairment.

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Perinatal Stress and Methamphetamine Exposure Decreases Anxiety-Like Behavior in Adult Male Rats

Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience ◽

10.3389/fnbeh.2021.648780 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 15 ◽

Author(s):

Anna Holubová-Kroupová ◽

Romana Šlamberová

Keyword(s):

Water Stress ◽

Adult Male ◽

Drug Exposure ◽

Maternal Separation ◽

Cold Water ◽

Male Rats ◽

Central Disk ◽

Postnatal Stress ◽

Disk Area

Methamphetamine (MA) is an illicit synthetic psychostimulant drug, and its abuse is growing worldwide. MA has been reported as the primary drug of choice, by drug-abusing women, during pregnancy. Since MA easily crosses the placental barrier, the fetus is exposed to MA in a similar fashion to the mother. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of long-term perinatal stressors and drug exposure on anxiety-like behavior in adult male rats using the open field test (OF) and elevated plus maze (EPM). Dams were divided into three groups according to drug treatment during pregnancy: controls (C), saline—SA [subcutaneous (s.c.), 1 ml/kg], and MA (s.c., 5 mg/kg). Litters were divided into four groups according to postnatal stressors: non-stressed controls (N), maternal separation (S), maternal cold water stress (W), and maternal separation plus maternal cold water stress (SW). Forty-five minutes before testing (in both OF and EPM), one-half of adult male rats received an (s.c.) injection of MA and the other half received an SA injection. Prenatal MA/stress exposure did not affect anxiety-like behavior in adult male rats in both tests. In the OF, an acute MA dose in adulthood increased the time spent in the central disk area, decreased time spent in the corners, and decreased time spent immobile and grooming. Also, postnatal stress increased time spent in the central disk area, decreased time spent in corners, and increased mobility compared to controls. All groups of rats exposed to postnatal stressors spent significantly less time in the closed arms of the EPM compared to controls. Overall, our results indicate that early postnatal stress and a single acute MA administration in adulthood decreases the parameters of anxiety-like behavior in adult male rats regardless of prenatal MA exposure. Moreover, postnatal stress via maternal separation impacts the effect of acute MA administration in adulthood. Long-term postnatal stress may thus result in improved adaptation to subsequent stressful experiences later in life.

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Differences in Maternal Behavior and Development of Their Pups Depend on the Time of Methamphetamine Exposure During Gestation Period

Physiological Research ◽

10.33549/physiolres.932925 ◽

2014 ◽

pp. S559-S572 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

M. MALINOVÁ-ŠEVČÍKOVÁ ◽

I. HREBÍČKOVÁ ◽

E. MACÚCHOVÁ ◽

E. NOVÁ ◽

M. POMETLOVÁ ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Maternal Behavior ◽

Female Rats ◽

Male Rats ◽

Lactation Period ◽

Balance Performance ◽

Balance Test ◽

Beam Balance ◽

Time Of Application ◽

Sensorimotor Development ◽

Righting Reflex

The present study examined the hypothesis that the extension of noxious effect of methamphetamine (MA) on maternal behavior and postnatal development on the pups may differ in dependence with time of application. Female rats were injected with MA (5 mg/kg) or saline during first (embryonic day (ED) 1-11) or second (ED 12-22) half of gestation. Our results demonstrated that MA exposure on ED 12-22 led to decreased birth weight and weight gained during lactation period relative to rats treated on ED 1-11. Both sexes treated prenatally with MA on ED 1-11 opened eyes earlier compared to animals treated on ED 12-22. As a matter of sensorimotor development application of MA on ED 1-11 impaired the righting reflex, while MA exposure on ED 12-22 impaired the performance of beam balance test in male rats. There were no differences in maternal behavior. Therefore, it seems that MA exposure in the first half of the gestation impaired the early sensorimotor development that is under control of the brain stem, while the MA exposure in the second half of gestation affected the beam balance performance that is dependent on the function of the cerebellum.

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The impact of acute cold water stress on blood parameters, mortality rate and stress-related genes in Oreochromis niloticus, Oreochromis mossambicus and their hybrids

Journal of Thermal Biology ◽

10.1016/j.jtherbio.2021.103049 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 103049

Author(s):

Sevdan Yilmaz ◽

Sebahattin Ergün ◽

Ekrem Şanver Çelik ◽

Mohamed Banni ◽

Ehsan Ahmadifar ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Water Stress ◽

Mortality Rate ◽

Oreochromis Niloticus ◽

Cold Water ◽

Oreochromis Mossambicus ◽

Blood Parameters ◽

Stress Related Genes ◽

The Impact

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Effect of vestibular stimulation in cold water stress induced neurological changes

10.36295/asro.2020.2323118 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 23 (23) ◽

Author(s):

Rama Kranthi T ◽

Archana R ◽

Senthilkumar Sivanesan

Keyword(s):

Water Stress ◽

Cold Water ◽

Vestibular Stimulation

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Humans Can Acclimatize to Cold: A Lesson from Korean Women Divers

Physiology ◽

10.1152/physiologyonline.1987.2.3.79 ◽

1987 ◽

Vol 2 (3) ◽

pp. 79-82 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Suk Ki Hong ◽

Donald W. Rennie ◽

Yang Saeng Park

Keyword(s):

Water Stress ◽

Cold Stress ◽

Cold Water ◽

Korean Women ◽

Cold Acclimatization

For over 2,000 years traditional Korean women divers have dived with little clothing, subjecting themselves daily to a severe cold stress that has caused alterations of several thermoregulatory functions. Since 1977 these divers have used wet suits that have eliminated the cold-water stress, and by 1982 their thermoregulatory functions had returned completely to control levels. This indicates that the traditional divers indeed developed cold acclimatization, a phenomenon that has been difficult to document in humans.

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Precise and pervasive phasic bursting in locus coeruleus during maternal behavior

10.1101/2021.03.31.437751 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Roman Dvorkin ◽

Stephen D. Shea

Keyword(s):

Social Behavior ◽

Locus Coeruleus ◽

Maternal Behavior ◽

Sensory Stimuli ◽

Pup Retrieval ◽

Subsequent Behavior ◽

Maternal Interaction ◽

Key Aspects ◽

Global Brain ◽

Relationship Of

ABSTRACTThe noradrenergic locus coeruleus (LC) mediates key aspects of arousal, memory, and cognition in structured tasks, but its contribution to natural behavior remains unclear. Neuronal activity in LC is organized into sustained (‘tonic’) firing patterns reflecting global brain states and rapidly fluctuating (‘phasic’) bursts signaling discrete behaviorally significant events. LC’s broad participation in social behavior including maternal behavior is well-established, yet the temporal relationship of its activity to sensory events and behavioral decisions in this context is unknown. Here, we made electrical and optical recordings from LC in female mice during maternal interaction with pups. We find that pup retrieval stably elicits precisely timed and pervasive phasic activation of LC that can’t be attributed to sensory stimuli, motor activity, or reward. Correlation of LC activity with retrieval events shows that phasic events are most closely related to subsequent behavior. We conclude that LC likely drives goal-directed action selection during social behavior with globally-broadcast noradrenaline release.

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