Maternal separation disrupts dendritic morphology of neurons in prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and nucleus accumbens in male rat offspring.

Neonatal maternal separation (MS) in rats has widely been used as a neurodevelopmental model to mimic mood-related disorders. MS produces a wide array of behavioral deficits that persist throughout adulthood. In this study we investigate the effect of MS and substitute maternal handling (human handling) on the dendritic morphology of neurons in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), the CA1 ventral hippocampus, and the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), brain regions in male rats that have been associated with affective disorders at pre-pubertal (postnatal day 35 (PND35)) and post-pubertal (PND60) ages.

Prenatal stress alters spine density and dendritic length of nucleus accumbens and hippocampus neurons in rat offspring.

Prenatal stress alters neuronal morphology of mesocorticolimbic structures such as frontal cortex and hippocampus in the adult offspring. We investigated here the effects of prenatal stress on the spine density and the dendrite morphology of hippocampal pyramidal neurons and medium spiny cells from nucleus accumbens in prepubertal and adult male offsprings. Sprague-Dawley pregnant dams were stressed by restraining movement daily for 2 hours from gestational day 11 until delivery.