Prenatal Glucocorticoid Exposure Modifies Endocrine Function and Behaviour for 3 Generations Following Maternal and Paternal Transmission

Overview

Journal Sci Rep

Specialty Science

Date 2017 Sep 20

PMID 28924262

Citations 31

Authors

Vasilis G Moisiadis

Andrea Constantinof

Alisa Kostaki

Moshe Szyf

Stephen G Matthews

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Fetal exposure to high levels of glucocorticoids programs long-term changes in the physiologic stress response and behaviours. However, it is not known whether effects manifest in subsequent generations of offspring following maternal (MT) or paternal (PT) transmission. We treated pregnant guinea pigs with three courses of saline or synthetic glucocorticoid (sGC) at a clinically relevant dose. Altered cortisol response to stress and behaviours transmitted to juvenile female and male F and F offspring from both parental lines. Behavioural effects of sGC in F-F PT females associated with altered expression of genes in the prefrontal cortex and hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN). Exposure to sGC programmed large transgenerational changes in PVN gene expression, including type II diabetes, thermoregulation, and collagen formation gene networks. We demonstrate transgenerational programming to F following antenatal sGC. Transmission is sex- and generation-dependent, occurring through both parental lines. Paternal transmission to F females strongly implicates epigenetic mechanisms of transmission.

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