Adrenal response of male rats exposed to prenatal stress and early postnatal stimulation

Stress in pregnant rats caused by chronic immobilization alters the pattern of secretion of corticosterone and modifies the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) of the fetus. Early postnatal handling, however, may reverse the effects of increased secretion of corticosterone. We investigated the effects of prenatal stress and postnatal handling on the activity of the HPA axis of male offspring of stressed female rats. Male 90-day-old rats from four groups were investigated: prenatally stressed animals without postnatal handling, prenatally stressed animals with postnatal handling, unstressed control animals with postnatal handling, and unstressed control animals without postnatal handling. After sacrifice, the adrenal glands were weighed to determine the adrenal-somatic index. Apoptosis was evaluated by TUNEL assay and active caspase-3 expression. We found that the adrenal gland cortex:medulla ratio increased in animals with prenatal stress and that eventually the stress caused apoptosis. Handling newborns to simulate maternal activity ameliorated some of the negative effects of prenatal stress.Fil: Liaudat, Ana Cecilia. Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto. Facultad de Agronomía y Veterinaria; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Rodríguez, N.. Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto. Facultad de Agronomía y Veterinaria; ArgentinaFil: Chen, S.. Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto. Facultad de Agronomía y Veterinaria; ArgentinaFil: Romanini, María Cristina. Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto. Facultad de Agronomía y Veterinaria; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Vivas, A.. Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto. Facultad de Agronomía y Veterinaria; ArgentinaFil: Rolando, A.. Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto. Facultad de Agronomía y Veterinaria; ArgentinaFil: Gauna, H.. Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto. Facultad de Agronomía y Veterinaria; ArgentinaFil: Mayer, N.. Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto. Facultad de Agronomía y Veterinaria; Argentin

Smoking during pregnancy: a significant cause of neonatal thyroid enlargement.

The influence of maternal smoking during pregnancy on the function and the echographic volume of the neonatal thyroid gland was examined in an area of borderline iodine intake (median maternal urinary iodine: 315 range 79-1558 nmol/l). There was a positive correlation (P less than 0.001) between cord serum thiocyanate (SCN) concentrations used as an index of maternal smoking and the maternal smoking habits. The thyroid volume/birthweight ratio increased significantly as a function of SCN values (P less than 0.005): this increase was secondary to a decrease in birthweight as well as to an increase in thyroid volume. There was also a positive correlation between cord serum thyroglobulin (Tg) and SCN levels (P = 0.001). Serum thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and free thyroxine (FT4) values remained within the normal range for age in all newborn infants and were not significantly correlated with SCN values. These results show that smoking during pregnancy in areas with borderline iodine intake may be a significant cause of thyroid enlargement in the newborn.Journal ArticleSCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe