| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,700,000)
Fiscal Year 2000: ¥900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000)
Fiscal Year 1999: ¥2,800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,800,000)
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| Research Abstract |
Maternal sound stress (800 Hz ; 77dB, every other minute for 15 min/day, from day 10 to 18 of gestation), combined with forced swimming stress (15 min/day), was found to cause potentiation of sound-induced loss of locomotor activity, referred to as emotional behavior, of male offspring, but not that of female offspring, at 4 weeks of age. Maternal stress also caused an increase in the total number of errors by male, but not female offspring in the water-maze test at 6 weeks of age. These effects of stress on emotional behavior and learning behavior were abolished when dams were pretreated with buspirone (30 min before the stress, from day 8 to 18 of gestation). Thus, prenatal stress might have sex-dependent effects on emotional behavior and learning ability of neonatal rats. As to the neurochemical aspects, maternal sound stress, combined with forced swimming stress, was found to influence the binding activity of 5-HT_<2A> receptor and 5-HT transporter to their specific ligand in sex-dependent manner. No effect was observed in the binding activity of 5-HT_<1A> receptor of developing brain. Thus, it was speculated that maternal stress might cause abnormal formation of serotonergic network, and might impair the emotional behavior and learning ability of neonatal rats.
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