Background: Stress during pregnancy and postpartum periods has been associated with short-term cognitive deficits with potential long-term Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk. However, the biological mechanisms mediating these effects remain poorly understood. This study investigated the impacts of recurrent heat and simulated refugee camp stress across pregnancy and the postpartum period on cognition, affective behaviour, and AD neuropathological changes in primiparous rats.
Methods: Control dams underwent normal housing while stress dams were exposed to daily prenatal heat (38°C) from gestational day 12-20 alternating with overnight food/water deprivation and overcrowded conditions to model refugee crises. This recurrent stress continued weekly from postnatal days 23-37 (postweaning of the first litters). Learning and memory were assessed using the Y-maze and V-maze novel object recognition (NOR) tests. Anxiety- and depressive-like behaviours were determined using the elevated plus maze (EPM) and sucrose splash tests, respectively. Following behavioural analyses, hippocampal and frontal cortical levels of pathogenic AD biomarkers amyloid-beta 42 (Aβ42) and phosphorylated tau (p-tau) were measured along with neuroinflammation and synaptic integrity markers.
Result: Recurrent prenatal-postpartum stress induced acute cognitive impairment including impaired recognition memory and spatial learning and memory, increased anxiety-like behaviour, and mediated AD-relevant pathological changes including elevated hippocampal and cortical amyloid-beta aggregation, tau hyperphosphorylation, neuroinflammation, and synaptic alterations compared to the unstressed control group.
Conclusion: Recurrent prenatal-postpartum stress elicits both immediate neurobehavioral dysfunction and pathological changes potentially increasing AD susceptibility in primiparous rats. These findings may inform interventions to mitigate recurrent perinatal stress impacts on maternal cognitive function and resilience against neurodegeneration.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/alz.084969 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Digital health technologies enabling the transition from pregnancy to early parenthood: A scoping review.
Z Evid Fortbild Qual Gesundhwes
January 2025
Department Digital Health Sciences and Biomedicine, School of Life Sciences, University of Siegen, Siegen, Germany.
Background: Pregnant women and their families, especially those navigating chronic illness or challenging life situations, often seek information and counseling. The pregnancy period and the transition to parenthood can exacerbate these circumstances, leaving families particularly vulnerable. Addressing stressful situations becomes a hurdle in this context.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe impact of spillover and crossover effects of job stressors on pregnancy rates in couples undergoing in vitro fertilization treatments.
J Assist Reprod Genet
January 2025
Meir Medical Center, Kfar Saba, Israel.
Purpose: Studies have shown mixed findings regarding the impact of stress on the success of fertility treatments. To the best of our knowledge, stress in the context of the workplace has not been investigated to date in relation to the success of fertility treatments. This research investigates the impact of work-related stress and emotional exhaustion experienced by both partners on in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTransplacental signals involved in the programming effects of prenatal psychosocial stress on neurodevelopment.
Neurotoxicol Teratol
January 2025
Center for the Prevention of Preterm Birth, Perinatal Institute, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, United States; Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, United States; Office of the President, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Research Triangle Park, Durham, NC, United States. Electronic address:
Exposure to psychosocial stress during pregnancy has been associated with the emergence of neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders in offspring. The placenta is known to orchestrate various functions that are essential for normal fetal development, including the brain. It has therefore been postulated that alterations in such functions, and downstream signaling, have the potential to dramatically affect brain developmental trajectories and contribute to adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEffects of meloxicam and flunixin meglumine on oxidative stress and pregnancy factors in Awassi sheep.
Vet Rec
January 2025
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Harran University, Sanliurfa, Turkey.
Background: This study aimed to evaluate the effects of administering flunixin meglumine (FM) and meloxicam (M) on specific days post-mating on progesterone (P4), total oxidant status (TOS), total antioxidant status (TAS), oxidative stress index (OSI), pregnancy-specific protein B (PSPB), pregnancy-associated glycoprotein (PAG) concentrations and fertility parameters in Awassi sheep.
Methods: Seventy-five Awassi sheep were divided into three groups of 25: control, M and FM. On days 9 and 10 post-mating, the control group received saline, the M group received 0.
Pomegranate peels ethanolic extract in free and nanoemulsified forms around mating and early pregnancy differently affect heat tolerance capacity and reproductive performance of ewes under heat stress.
J Therm Biol
December 2024
Department of Animal and Fish Production, Faculty of Agriculture, Alexandria University, Alexandria, 21545, Egypt.
Global warming is seriously threatening sheep farmings by increasing health problems and decreasing reproductive efficiency. In this study, pomegranate peels ethanolic extract (Ppee), rich in phenolic acids, was prepared in free (Fppee) and nanoemulsified (Nppee, with 18.49 nm-21.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!