The prenatal environment is a source of phenotypic variability influencing the animal's characteristics. Prenatal stress affects not only the development of offspring, but also that of the following generation. Such effects have been best documented in mammals but can also be observed in birds, suggesting common processes across phylogenetic orders. We found previously that Japanese quail femal...

Plasma testosterone (T) was measured in control male and female rats on gestational days 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20 and on days 17-20 in males from dams who were fed ethanol and/or were stressed during pregnancy. Circulating T in control males showed an earlier rise, yielding a longer period of prenatal T elevation, than was reported previously (Endocrinology 106 (1980)306). Compared to control mal...

A suboptimal in utero environment, for example, as a result of maternal stress, can have detrimental effects on the pregnancy and long-term adverse 'programming' effects on the offspring. This article focuses on the effects of prenatal social stress on the mother, her pregnancy and the offspring, since these issues have ethological relevance in both animals and humans. The consequences of socia...

Background & Aims: Today, due to the modern industrial life of human beings, stress has become prevalent among them and they will suffer from its complications. Exposure to stress during pregnancy can change many babies' normal physiological processes. The separate and combined effects of three common types of prenatal stress were investigated on motor learning of male offspring of rats. Method...

background and purpose: prenatal health behaviors encompass different health-promoting behaviors in women of reproductive age, which improve physical and mental health, as well as pregnancy outcomes. this study aimed to evaluate the effect of prenatal training on the health-promoting behaviors of the women of reproductive age. materials and methods: this randomized controlled clinical trial was...

INTRODUCTION Prenatal stress has deleterious effects on the development of the brain and is associated with behavioral and psychosocial problems in childhood and adulthood. This study aimed to determine the protective effect of L-arginine on fetal brain under maternal stress. METHODS Twenty pregnant Wistar rats (weighting 200-230 g) were randomly divided into 4 groups (n=5 for each group). Th...

Several studies have convicingly demonstrated a deleterious effect of prenatal stress on the pregnancy outcome. In line with the “Fetal Programming Hypothesis” studies detected that prenatal stress isprogramming fetal brain functions associated with permanent changes in neuroendocrine regulation and behaviour in the child and adolescent (Literatur, Jahr) . Long-term consequences like ADHS or sc...

Leukocyte telomere length (LTL) is a predictor of age-related disease onset and mortality. The association in adults of psychosocial stress or stress biomarkers with LTL suggests telomere biology may represent a possible underlying mechanism linking stress and health outcomes. It is, however, unknown whether stress exposure in intrauterine life can produce variations in LTL, thereby potentially...

OBJECTIVES To study the role of opioids in early postnatal changes of the hypothalamic testosterone metabolism and catecholamine content underlying feminizing effect of prenatal stress on male sexual behavior in rats. MATERIAL AND METHODS 10 day-old male and female offspring from mothers given naltrexone prior to daily 1-hour restraint during the last gestational week were used in the study. ...