Cited by 20Cannabis and Cannabinoid ResearchStress Responses and CortisolMaternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum

Prenatal Stress and Peripubertal Stimulation of the Endocannabinoid System Differentially Regulate Emotional Responses and Brain Metabolism in Mice

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Macrì, Simone, Ceci, Chiara, Canese, Rossella, Laviola, Giovanni·2012·PLoS ONE

Abstract

The central endocannabinoid system (ECS) and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal-axis mediate individual responses to emotionally salient stimuli. Their altered developmental adjustment may relate to the emergence of emotional disturbances. Although environmental influences regulate the individual phenotype throughout the entire lifespan, their effects may result particularly persistent during plastic developmental stages (e.g. prenatal life and adolescence). Here, we investigated whether prenatal stress--in the form of gestational exposure to corticosterone supplemented in the maternal drinking water (100 mg/l) during the last week of pregnancy--combined with a pharmacological stimulation of the ECS during adolescence (daily fatty acid amide hydrolase URB597 i.p. administration--0.4 mg/kg--between postnatal days 29-38), influenced adult mouse emotional behaviour and brain metabolism measured through in vivo quantitative magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Compared to control mice, URB597-treated subjects showed, in the short-term, reduced locomotion and, in the long term, reduced motivation to execute operant responses to obtain palatable rewards paralleled by reduced levels of inositol and taurine in the prefrontal cortex. Adult mice exposed to prenatal corticosterone showed increased behavioural anxiety and reduced locomotion in the elevated zero maze, and altered brain metabolism (increased glutamate and reduced taurine in the hippocampus; reduced inositol and N-Acetyl-Aspartate in the hypothalamus). Present data further corroborate the view that prenatal stress and pharmacological ECS stimulation during adolescence persistently regulate emotional responses in adulthood. Yet, whilst we hypothesized these factors to be interactive in nature, we observed that the consequences of prenatal corticosterone administration were independent from those of ECS drug-induced stimulation during adolescence.

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  • Early-life stress-exposed mice show reductions in N-acetylaspartate in the frontal cortex and hypothalamus.

    “These include reductions in N-acetylaspartate (a marker of neuronal integrity) in the frontal cortex and hypothalamus in early-life stress-exposed mice [97–99]”

    From Brain structural and functional outcomes in the offspring of women experiencing psychological distress during pregnancy (2024) · cites this paper as [99]

    The Discussion reports significantly reduced N-acetylaspartate (NAA) in the hypothalamus of mice exposed to prenatal corticosterone. However, the Results state that prenatal corticosterone had no effect on metabolite concentrations in the prefrontal cortex, so this paper does not support the claimed reduction there. Page numbers are unavailable in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.90)

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Authors
Macrì, S., Ceci, C., Canese, R., & Laviola, G.
Affiliations
Istituto Superiore di Sanità (IT)
Venue
PLoS ONE
Published
2012-07-25
Volume
7
Issue
7
Pages
e41821
ISSN
1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W1998767393
Cited by
20
References
106
Citations by year
2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2020: 2 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 5
FWCI
2.35
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
Keywords
prenatal stress, endocannabinoid system, fatty acid amide hydrolase, URB597, corticosterone, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, adolescence, anxiety, emotional behavior, brain metabolism, prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, hypothalamus, myo-inositol, taurine, glutamate, N-acetylaspartate, locomotion
MeSH terms
Animals, Anxiety, Benzamides, Body Weight, Brain, Carbamates, Corticosterone, Drinking, Emotions, Female, Locomotion, Male, Pregnancy, Puberty, Stress, Psychological, Time Factors, Mice, Anhedonia, Endocannabinoids

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