Sherpa Romeo green journal. Open access, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) LicensePeripartum events hold the potential to have dramatic effects in the programming of physiology and behaviour of
offspring and possibly subsequent generations. Here we have characterized transgenerational changes in rat
maternal behaviour as a function of gestational and prenatal stress. Pregnant dams of the parental generation
were exposed to stress from days 12-18 (F0-S). Their daughters and grand-daughters were either stressed (F1-SS,
F2-SSS) or non-stressed (F1-SN, F2-SNN). Maternal antepartum behaviours were analyzed at a time when pregnant
dams usually show a high frequency of tail chasing behaviours. F1-SS, F2-SNN and F2-SSS groups showed a
significant reduction in tail chasing behaviours when compared with controls. The effects of multigenerational
stress (SSS) slightly exceeded those of transgenerational stress (SNN) and resulted in absence of tail chasing
behaviour. These findings suggest that antepartum maternal behaviour in rats is programmed by transgenerational
inheritance of stress responses. Thus, altered antepartum maternal behaviour may serve as an indicator of an
activated stress response during gestation.Ye